Shards of Old

First thing I noticed while inside was the smell. Rotting flesh.

Sadly, it was not exactly unknown to me. Covering my mouth and nose with my sleeve, trying to at least ward myself a little bit somehow. For a second, I realized that I stopped paying attention to the creatures inside, I froze in place, worried that I might get attacked. But both creatures were not paying attention to me at all. They were busy with something on the other side of the… room?

I finally realized where I was. I found myself in a large, square room, maybe four meters tall, and about ten meters across. On the ceiling there were roots and vines that formed something like a chandelier, with glowing gems in shapes of thorns stabbed into them. The shapes of them reminded me somehow of Melle’s house, albeit barren and without any windows. The only furniture was a large desk, maybe three meters long, covered by some green fabric and a chair, on the other side of the room, where the creatures were doing something. As I slowly walked closer, I saw that there was also a small lamp, similar design to the chandelier, lighting up them all.

And there was someone sitting in the chair. Their back was turned to me, so I couldn't tell who that might be, but as I approached, the smell was getting worse and worse.

They were definitely long dead.

I was still being ignored, so I took a peek at the person's face, and the desk in front. It was not a very pleasant sight.

The face was almost in a liquid state. For some reason, the whole front of him, or her, was melted, like a wax figure who someone left on the sun, hair long gone. The clothes were in a bit better shape. The corpse was wearing a long robe, without any markings. It was completely green, but it was hard to tell if it was the design, or it was just because of whatever happened here, because the part of the desk in front was of the same color. It kind of looked like an exploded can of paint, the green stain was covering the whole chair and a part of the desk. In the epicenter of the stain there was a singular… let's say, device. I didn't notice until then, because it was hidden by the corpse and the chair. Its design was similar to that of the lamp and was a bit wider, with a small opening in the middle. It sort of looked like a stand for something. Upon closer inspection, it looked like it used to have some writing all over it, especially on its lower, circular part on which it was standing. Sadly, it was completely covered in this green-colored paint or whatever that thing was, to the point where it was unreadable. I tried touching it. Similarly to the corpse, this thing was melted like wax, but it somehow retained most of its shape. It was even a bit gooey to the touch. I assumed that if I touched the person's face it would be exactly the same.

I took a better look at the green stain. It didn't look like any substance I knew of. Stumped, I turned to the creatures that were a few steps from me, looking at something under the desk. By now, Bert was free from the bindings and lying near something on the floor. As I looked below, the smell got even worse. There was another body lying on the floor, hidden under the drapes of the desk.

This one was in better shape. It was a man, maybe in his forties, head cleanly shaved, wearing robes similar to the guy on the chair, although those were blue. He had a green stain on his left side that covered most of his torso, similar to one on the desk.

-This place is haunting… - I muttered to myself, for a second forgetting that I was not alone in the room.

Still though, creatures did not react, just looking at Bert and the corpse lying shoulder to shoulder under the table.

I was so close to them, I basically could've touched them if I wanted to. Knowing better I focused my attention on the writing I saw earlier on the back of the creature and my suspicions were confirmed.

Wowu. Life.

Now, this close, I could see there was quite a bit more writing on that leech. “Life” was surrounded by another circle of text, and then another one, and another. Most of it faded or straight up destroyed by something, but I didn't even bother deciphering the readable part. I just found a place where someone was experimenting with life.

It was not the first time I was in a place like this, but it was the first time in this world. Usually I would be sick and annoyed that once again I had to clean up after someone else's mess, but this time, it was different. I guess it was nice to, for once here, know what you should do and be able to let your old habits take over.

First: locate the epicenter and contain it.

Quite obvious, the massive green stain and the stand in the middle make it easy. I was pretty sure that whatever crystal was used was completely disintegrated during the accident, so at least I didn’t have to worry about that.

About the other part though… This one was a bit tricky.

In this case - the mana leech. Judging from the runes, it was the testing subject, but containing it looked unnecessary. Since both of them arrived here, they did not react to me at all. Hell, neither of them even moved at all.

If that were the regular, smaller ones, that would not be surprising. After all, they were named leeches not because of their relation to the animal - rather because of their behavior. To be honest, they had more in common with a plant than with an animal.

I decided to, for now, leave them alone.

Second: provide aid to victims.

We are far too late for this. I mean, that’s what usually would happen, but still. I guess Bert counts, sort of, but he's fine.

Then the most interesting part. For me at least.

Third: secure the evidence.

The only thing that was left was the stand. I took another look at the construction, and yep, nothing changed. Still gooey and unreadable. Just a piece of junk. If there were any notes lying in the open, they were either destroyed or gone by now. The place was pretty barren, so the only place to search for them were the bodies themselves. Without delay and much of a thought I started ruffling through the robe of the guy on the chair. Or at least I attempted to, because when I touched his chest, I could feel that it was useless, almost all of his body and clothes were of this weird, wax-like consistency. Unpleasant to the touch, and even more unpleasant to try and ruffle through. When I tried moving his clothes aside, it felt like the whole corpse was made of the same substance, and I was not wrong. As I reached deeper under his clothes, my hand went a lot deeper than it should. Into his chest. And through. I touched the back of the chair. Disgusting.

Deciding to better leave that one alone I pulled my hand out with a loud and not very pleasant sound and went to inspect Bert’s neighbor.

This one was in better shape, only his side was gooified. Finally, I had some luck - ruffling through I found a notebook. I skimmed through the contents and it looked like it was mostly a journal. It had a few other notes here and there, but for now I focused on the last entries.

xxx

Preparations are almost complete. We have acquired both gems and a few good specimens that should survive the merge. Tomorrow we attempt the fusion.

xxx

Today's attempt failed half way. Specimen 1 successfully joined with the nature element, but died during the injection of the second. Specimen 2 was the exact opposite. It failed at nature, but joined with the water element. It died during the second attempt at nature. Third and fourth died during the preparation phase. Further experiments required.

xxx

The deadline is coming close and there are no new discoveries. We will have to use more risky methods.

xxx

We are creating a new, life magic based injection sequence. Theoretically it should increase the likelihood of the specimen's survival.

xxx

Sequence is now complete and working. Test on a live subject was successful. Without addition of any elements we boosted its physical strength twofold. We need more testing subjects.

xxx

The population of mana leeches has stagnated. We are unable to acquire more healthy subjects without completely destroying this river's ecosystem.

xxx

After a long discussion we have altered the local landscape and created better habitat for the population to increase. River has been transformed to a lake thanks to our combined effort.

xxx

There is not enough time to wait for the population to recover. We are unable to get more subjects before the designed date. We are going to proceed with an experiment using a singular subject.

xxx

Subject is prepared and sequence ready. Tomorrow we will try the fusion again.

xxx

That was the last entry.

Experiments involving life, water and nature magic? Sounds about right. And tests on living creatures? Well, they succeeded. Sort of. But one thing is weird. Why would this creature bring Bert here? A security measure? Possibly. A new test subject? Maybe.

In any case, I hid the journal in my bag and started looking for more notes. Sadly, this was the only thing that was not absolutely destroyed that I managed to find. Here and there I found scraps of some papers, some were even pretty clean - I immediately pocketed those. I also found something that looked sort of like a pencil, but instead of wood it had a very thin layer of some green texture, similar in touch to moss, but a bit harder. Besides that, everything was either destroyed by water or moss.

It checks out I guess, they worked with water and nature magic after all. That meant there was only one thing left to do.

Fourth: sterilize the accident area. Or, be blunt, destroy everything else.

To be completely honest, that was the only part I always was chosen to do. I often helped others with the rest of the process, but the cleanup was the one thing that I was given full supervision over. I guess working with elemental spells puts you on this kind of list - I was delegated to being a glorified janitor.

In any case, first I had to make sure there was not anything that I missed, so I moved to the center of the room and focused on the area. Immediately I felt a lot of magical traces nearby and concentrated on the specific locations. In the corner of my eye I noticed that the leeches started now looking towards me. As it was the first time that they finally recognized my presence, I felt a bit unnerved. They still were not doing anything though, so I decided to keep an eye out but not disturb them for now.

The first and one of the more apparent magical sources in the room were the leeches themselves. I could also feel a faint magical aura from Bert on the floor, my arm and the whole building, I mean tree. But the biggest one was coming from the stain on the desk, with its source being the small stand. If I didn't know already, I now was sure where the epicenter of the experiment and the failure was. All of those, well besides people, were a mix of nature and water magic. There was also quite a bit of lingering mana in the air around. But it appeared that there were no hidden magical sources in the immediate vicinity, so I felt a bit relieved. After all, what I was about to do was guaranteed to bring attention to everyone and everything in the area.

First thing first though. I grabbed Bert and dragged him towards the middle of the room and sat in front of him. He was still out cold, but that was not the issue right now. I started focusing my mana into a small orb, like I always used to. That immediately grabbed the attention of the leeches. They approached us, like some weird curious cats, turning their maws right towards the orb that I was forming and growing larger. It was still invisible, made of pure colorless mana, although they appeared to see it no problem. Then I started the spell.

-Iminipvuk lupilvo lyp do voy mulu, gmyo lek…

It was a bit of a lengthy incantation. I remembered it well, since it was part of my job, but it still required a lot of concentration. It was a combination of elemental magic that is always chosen by the spell itself to specifically work the best against whatever element it finds traces of.

But this time, the effect was unusual. The orb, which was supposed to be the center of the spell, first turned into ice. Then it instantly vaporized and was replaced with a flame. Then again, ice. And so on. As the elements were flickering in front of me, I realized that the spell had a difficulty distinguishing the remnants of this experiment. Usually I would just leave it for a while and let it work for a minute or two. This time though, I did not have that luxury.

As soon as the mana was converted to elements, the leeches suddenly got riled up. First, the two creatures instantly sprung towards the orb, trying to devour it. Since the spell was powerful enough and the orb about the size of an average person, they just got pushed back. One of them was not discouraged though and kept attacking and bouncing away constantly. The other one though, with the writing on, was a lot smarter. It looked at me directly and started slithering in my direction.

For a second I hoped it's just gonna watch, like it did before, but that was cleared out pretty quickly when it opened its mouth and sprung from the ground, directly at me.

In a split second I had to make a choice. I interrupted my concentration on the spell and jumped backwards, trying to drag Bert with me.

At the time, the orb, or rather now the large sphere, was filled with two elements fighting over for dominance. When I broke the spell, both of them got released at once and exploded all around us with a blast of hot steam that first seared the one leech that was still near it. Then it hit us, along with the other leech, blowing him off course, making it miss us and pushing me with Bert almost to the edge of the room.

Well, the regular plan was out the window. I took a quick look around to see the damage. Or at least tried. Right now I was standing in an actual sauna with steam so dense I couldn't see further than about a meter in front. In other news, the shock and hot air apparently shook Bert awake, because he started to pick himself up from the ground.

-What the hell is going on... - he groaned. - Where am… YOU. Why are you here? Why is it so hot?

Before I managed to answer a singular question, a horrible shriek tore through the air. High pitched, almost like someone stepped on a mouse, but maybe a hundred times louder. It came from where I imagine the leech landed after the explosion.

-What was THAT?

-Nothing good.

Like to confirm my words, something else replied to the scream, from a bit further away, somewhere outside. Similar scream, but a bit lower and guttural, or maybe just distorted by something. And then another. And another. And then ten more. To the point where the air was filled with this cacophony of noise.

-We have to get out of here. And fast.

-I think it is a bit late for that.

The shrieks were now so close I could feel the vibrations in the wood all around us from all the noise. The steam also cleared up a bit and I finally could see what happened.

One of the leeches was lying on the other side of the room, steaming and unmoving, pierced by some pieces of wood from the furniture it was near. The other one, who survived and raised the alarm, was lying wounded a few steps in front of me. It had a large splinter of wood stabbed right in the middle of its torso, pinning it to the ground. It was most likely a piece of chair, or a desk.

Speaking of, the other side of the room was absolutely ruined. The little furniture that were here were nowhere to be seen, replaced by a pile of wood. The blast of steam was powerful enough to send some splinters flying, saving me from being attacked. I was glad that I jumped back, because even right in front of me there was a bunch of wood wedged into the floor.

But even though pierced and blasted away, the one leech survived and was wiggling around, trying to free itself from the pin. Every time it moved, the wound started getting bigger and bigger, and if it was a human, it would be bleeding profusely. I could even see inside the wound and its body. It was apparently made of some sort of sponge-like substance, bronze-green in color. Instead of bleeding, it was leaking some clear liquid, almost like water, but a bit more viscous, with some green particles in it. Thanks to the heat blast, it was steaming hot, along with the whole body of the creature.

Even incomplete, the spell worked nicely, although it failed to finish the job. Normally it would not be a problem, I would've just recast the spell. But now…

-How are you holding up? - I asked Bert, who was now standing up and drawing his bow. Where did he even pull it from?

-I'm fine, but I don't think I can muster anything more than a few arrows. I still feel a bit hazy.

-Don't have any more of those mana fruits I assume?

-I do, but it takes time for them to work. I ate one as soon as I heard that horrible noise, but I don't think I have enough time for it to work.

-Shit.

As to confirm how bad the situation is, to all the screeching noise there was added a new one - loud thumping. Something was hitting the front door, or wherever there was the front door before, trying to break in. A lot of them.

-They are here already. Ok we need to…

Before I managed to finish the sentence I noticed something else. The door… or the crack that got sealed after I entered the room was opening again.

-No you don't!

It was the one leech that was with us. The writing on his back was glowing. It was trying to open the door to let all its companions in, but it got interrupted by the leader. He shot an ice arrow at it, and, even exhausted, he managed to hit the target. The attack was weak, but was enough to break the spell. The crack stopped growing and the leech slumped back to the ground, convulsing. Still not dead though. Not even a second later it picked itself up and tried casting again, just to be interrupted once more by an arrow.

-I thought you were exhausted.

-I am. Those arrows are now basically glorified icicles. I don't need much mana for those.

True, while he did interrupt the spell, he did not even manage to pierce the creature's skin, the projectile just shattered on impact.

-At least I can stop it from whatever it's trying to cast.

-I think the damage is already done - I said pointing towards the crack in the wall.

Even though the spell was interrupted, the crack did not disappear. What more, it was slowly growing larger, but not thanks to the spell. On the other side, the noise was getting louder.

Or rather we could hear it better now, thanks to the crack. It was the horde of the leeches. Called by their, I guess leader, they were trying to force their way into the room, and the crack provided a nice starting point for them to try and break the wall.

-You bastard! - Bert yelled, frustrated, approaching the convulsing leech and kicking it right in the open wound. It screeched quietly and got immediately silenced by another arrow. This time it was a proper one, albeit still weak. Or it was just thanks to it being shot point blank. It froze most of the creature's body which swiftly got shattered by another kick.

-Congratulations on killing a dying creature and wasting mana.

-Pfeh. If I am gonna die, at least I killed the one responsible for this situation.

-And why do you think that poor creature was responsible for all this?

-What? You are defending THIS THING? NOW?

-I am not defending anyone. Also, who said you are dying today? Although you made your odds worse with this display.

-Why are you so calm?! - he slumped on the ground, angrily clenching his fists. - Damnit...

-Told you, don't waste mana if you are not sure that you can handle it.

-Maybe then start using it yourself instead of lecturing me?

-I intend to.

As we were having this pleasant conversation, the crack in the wall got big enough for the first few leeches to emerge. They were a lot smaller than those I saw earlier, but thanks to that they managed to squeeze through the opening first. Without hesitation, about three of them jumped right towards us.