Underrealm

Soltana

She dreamed.

She was in a room made of white pearl with massive square cut diamond designs. Gentle lights streamed from the walls, the fixtures were long thin golden windows along the wall. The room itself felt massive and small like she could never see the ceiling but also felt like she needed to stoop down. She was in her dream form, twenty feet tall and towering. Her body was a silhouette apart from her head. She walked to the wall and could see shapes, people, creatures, fauna, angels, and beings of all sorts carved into the wall, all telling a story she had no context for.

What she didn’t know is it was telling the story of everything.

There she spotted a being, illuminated by a halo of light. As she advanced in closer, she could see it. The being stood just over six feet in height with an aura of elegance about it. It was clad in a midnight blue robe that wrapped fully around its body with a high collar. its head was a crystal sphere of sapphire. As she got in close, the robe shimmered, as if it contained a plasma storm.

There, just at eye level with the being was an Anform in a floating transparent sphere.

“Witness to the specimen. Her antecedent was inadequate from her very creation. She has integrated with the empty chassis, adding the part to her very being." The being spoke, but to who, Soltana did not know. It spoke like a golden bell that echoed the white halls.

Soltana kneeled down to look at the strange Anform. The body looked like a simple steel chassis, inadequate for anything but process work. The upper torso, where the neck and right shoulder should have been was different. She could see what looked like a copper filigree head and shoulder welded to the plain Anform chassis. It looked similar to hers, like a curved mannequin head without any details apart from the orange eyes, sans the filigree. She could see the fuse between the two change. It no longer looked welded together but became an alloy mixed between steel and copper. It wasn’t an Anform, but a Lambent. Her category. Soltana saw the Lambent twitch its right arm and raise it, inspecting the simple digits.

“Look at that, the consolidated metals have become their own alloy, bending to the will of the host Lambent. Do you witness this, Soltana?” The being turned its body and inquired. It had a six-fingered hand, each digit was a unique shape. It pointed to Soltana with a long dexterous forefinger.

“You can see me?” Soltana asked.

“Of course, the self-awareness of the divines is not constrained inside the morpheus. It makes it all the more fascinating,” The Angel spoke warmly as it gestured Soltana to follow. its billowing cloak ruffled as it turned, scattering the plasma storms to a kaleidoscope dazzling.

They made their way a short distance to another object inside an orb of floating water. It looked like a cocoon of ridged layers of metal. The being gestured to the second Lambent.

“Witness. This Lambent is undergoing a dramatic metamorphosis. Here, as you can see, she is an exact copy of the other. Using aqueous Steel, this Lambent can reshape the metals inside the cocoon to bend the metal to her very being.” The being explained.

Soltana could see the inside of the had been cocoon lit up, revealing the silhouette of an upper torso and head. Soltana could see the Lambent melt like ice and pool up inside the cocoon.

“Fascinating…” Soltana and the being said at once.

She turned to look at the Angel.

“These were just the first generation in the Lambent race. It took the combined knowledge of Humanity, Anform, and Angel to create this new race. To create you,” The being said as he pointed to her.

“The first way to rebuild yourself through Chassising. To add yourself to the body of an automata. The second is Chrysalizing.” The being explained.

Soltana nodded in thought at that.

“Chassissing is for critical repairs that a Lambent requires immediately. The transplanted part will integrate with the Lambent and become part of her. Chrysalizing will remake the Lambent into what her soul was created to begin with. It takes longer, thus if the Lambent is safe and she has the aqueous Steel and the power, she should Chrysalize.”

“Are all Lambents female?” Soltana asked. The being seemed to say her quite a bit.

“Only the female Lambents.” He responded humorously. And cryptically.

“What is your name?” Soltana finally asked, cocking her head, peering down at the tiny Angel.

“I am Barman, Angel of Knowledge. I am your creator, although I can only take one-third of the credit.” The Angel introduced himself with a sweeping graceful bow, the robe billowed, revealing his limbs and torso were made of twisted and threaded green gold metal. His torso also held a pointed diamond in his chest.

Soltana picked up on the one-third part of his comment.

“Why are you showing me this?” Soltana further asked.

“Because you need assistance.” Barman responded plainly.

“Because this recording is unlocked when you’re ready for the next level of repairs. Choose wisely, Chassising benefits immediately but will lack in the long term. Chrysalyzing will need much preparation but will help in the long run. Now or later; those are the choices.” Barman explained.

“You are a recording, how do you know you’re in a dream?” Soltana was confused.

“There is difficulty in explanation, but it is so.” Barman explained but didn’t.

“All Lambents have an innate ability of the suns themselves. Solar cannons are just the basic use of such energy.”

The scene changed to a Lambent and targeting range. It was a finely tuned automata made of filigree silver. It was just the torso, head, and left arm. Soltana spotted the target down range was a brick of steel. The silver Lambent pointed to the stationary target with a pinched finger and thumb. There a fine sphere of red energy formed, building up to highly intense light. She couldn’t look away as a beam shot out, striking the steel brick and flash melting it to slag. The roaring din of the cannon whipped up a wind storm.

“One can tell the power of a Lambent by their heat spectrum. Red to orange, yellow to green, blue to violet.”

Soltana turned to the smaller angel.

“What other uses are there?”

“Infinite,” Barman replied instantly. The cryptic answer gave her pause.

His crystal sphere head seemed to stare at her. She felt a sudden sadness that lasted as long as the first ray of sunlight.

“I must go. And as I leave, you have what you need to get started. I hope to see you again, dear Soltana. Adonai’s blessings upon you,” Barman valadicted with a sweeping bow.

Soltana was suddenly ripped from the dream into a new one. She was in a forest meadow, surrounded by twisting trees, it was a cage of trees of bark and branches twisted into one another as if all the trees were but a single organism. She looked up to see the forest canopy going for miles, the light splaying into the meadow dyed green from the leaves. To Soltana, it felt like a hive made of growing trees.

There was a noise in the underbrush, a rustling of tall grass and two diminutive figures rolled out. Two gobs. They were wrestling and tumbling around, oblivious to anything but play. Their shade of green a deeper green than the cavern cousins she knew. Soltana thought them cute. She could see who was dominant and who was the submissive by their play. They looked similar to their under cavern siblings, with their chubby and short limbs, They had the same shade of green, the same heavy brow, and the same dumb look. One had a pair of tiny dull tusks like teeth from its jaw. The more submissive one had the same pair, except it was jutting from upper lips.

She just watched, enjoying the scene of carefree playing in this wondrous place. She didn’t understand the context of the dream but would enjoy this brief respite regardless. She hadn’t seen the sunlight since her release, and apart from the form Adonai took. She was intent on rectifying that. The sound of the Gobs growling, wrestling, the grass rustling broke the otherwise peaceful meadow.

There was another sound, a deep bass clicking and screeching. The sound of branches snapping broke the peaceful atmosphere. She glanced to see a twisted being. It looked skeletal, except the bones were made from twisted black jagged iron chords. its head was shaped like a curved talon, pointing forwards. It had no face to speak of. Soltana thought for just a second it was either an Anform or other automata.

Her soul did not agree.

She felt her being shudder at its visage. This horrific creature turned, ignoring Soltana. It spotted the gobs and skittered at them on all fours, a predator on the hunt. The gob’s instincts took over as they ran for the tall grass. The creature dove at them with a twisted three finger hand into the grass, returning naught but dirt and fauna. It stood still as stone, listening for movement.

There was none. The gobs had gone silent as well.

Soltana changed. Something inside of her clicked at seeing innocents being hunted by this monster. Something began to build up, a power she hadn’t felt in an eternity. She could see the creature’s head turning to and fro, talon tip facing forward. its joints turned as it stood on two legs. Soltana could see a beam of heated energy quickly burn at the edges of grass, creating a fire. It made a procession around the tall grass, sparking fires with quick shots of beam energy from the talon’s tip, creating a ring of a grass fire. It stopped when it stood in front of Soltana and stared at her, into her. She could feel it noticed she was there, speaking a deep screeching bass rumbling, speaking its known tongue, Dimoori Sheol. It clicked in her head what that was.

The tongue of demons.

The creature was a demon.

Soltana shook her head.

“No. You will not hurt them. You will hurt no one!” She cried out, her distorted form solidified for just a moment as she pointed a finger at the demon. The Seal upon her forehead flared white hot.

A sphere of red energy formed at the demon’s talon tip as it charged to fire. Soltana was faster. White solar energy burst from her hands the width of a pin and shot true. The beam of white energy shot through the chest of the demon, through the meadow, through the trees, through the valley, through the mountain nearby, and past the horizon. The bark instantly carbonized around the pinhole of the blast, the heat so intense.

There was a roar of thunder and feedback as the superheated energy burned the atmosphere. The grass instantly withered around her as the wind whipped up a hurricane.

The red sphere the demon had charged dispersed and fizzled out. The demon felt the pinhole at its chest and began to stumble. The hole itself was burning inside the demon, turning the wound into grey ash. It let out a rumbling bass sigh as it fell forward, dropping to the grass with a rustle. The body deteriorated, changing to a grey ash statue. She saw the two gobs run out of the tall grass, the fire had been extinguished from the gust of wind of the white-hot energy beam. She could now get a good look at them as they sniffed around the burnt out demon corpse. They looked no worse for wear from the attack.

The gobs acted like nothing happened as they began to chase one another far into the meadow. Soltana felt her vision ending as it all faded to black.

She felt the presence of Adonai and heard his warm voice. The voice of God spoke with mirth.

“You now see only the barest extent of your power. Just like these two, others will need your protection. Be a Guardian, fulfill your identity!”

The dream ended.