ROUTE 1: CHAPTER 3: RAINY ROADS PART 2: TRUCKERS PIT-STOP

Two large spheres of energy had slowly moved into a position where their light could shine over the forlorn towers known as the Faraway Climb, pale blue beams curiously finding their way throughout the nooks and crannies of the ancient remnants.

The night had passed without any issues and as everyone in the party began to make preparations for breakfast Manila returned.

It was a simple meal, leftovers of the buillong from the previous night, soaked up with hardened bread.

(Manila: Good morning everyone, master… I could not find any traces left behind by yesterday's assailant, it seems we are safe for now.)

(Einfeldt: Such safety is merely an illusion, as we are all dying at every moment in time.)

(Arma: That's good though, anyhow! Let's eat, pack up our things and get going. I can't wait!)

(Eius: With such optimism, one would surely mistake you for a gaudia, ghahaha.)

And so the morning was spent in leisure, as an unknown enemy prepared for its next strike.

~

A few hours later Arma stood at the top of one of the ancient skyscrapers, the small group had finally reached the peak of their climb.

On the way they had seen other travellers, sometimes in groups, sometimes alone, scaling the buildings surrounding them, moving from this sphere to some other.

None of them seemed to be the one who had attacked them previously and they were mostly left alone except for some friendly shouting.

Below them the towers seemed to delve down endlessly, the village of Aster nowhere to be seen in the thick fog surrounding the buildings.

The same fog that moved in thick, twisted beams upwards towards the sky where they joined each other in a consuming mass of dark clouds.

In between those clouds massive pillars made out of metal and concrete arose to hold up what looked like a wide road, a pathway for wheeled vehicles.

It was an elevated four lane highway, rain eternally dampening the concrete roads.

(Manila: And that would be our destination... Truly a sight to behold.)

(Arma: Yeah… it's beautiful… So how do we get up there?)

(Eius: No need to get impatient… there should be an elevator somewhere around here. There always is.)

Just as Eius-farim mentioned it Arma seemed to notice the black box that stood in the middle of the rooftop.

A black box with a two-piece door and two buttons next to it. Strangely enough it seemed as if he had not been able to see it until it was mentioned.

It wasn't as if it appeared out of thin air, it was as if he had ignored it entirely until it was pointed out to him.

(Eius: There you go.)

(Arma: So we just enter it?)

(Manila: That would be the case master, this is our way forward.)

(Arma: Hmm… do you think there are any cars up there?)

~

On the edge of one of the skyscrapers that was the end of the Faraway Climb a lone young girl sat in silence, preparing the comically large rifle in her hands.

She looked as if she was in her early teenage years but her eyes shone with the darkness of an experienced killer.

Her chosen apparel was, for the occasion, rather awkward, as it made her look more or less like a schoolgirl from some ancient lost decade. On her neck she wore a necklace portraying a single eye, the only thing that did not fit with her fixation on the general schoolgirl motif.

Her hair was tied into twintails and this, as well as her height, did not help to improve the fact that she looked like a little girl.

(Manfry: leeeetsss smoke these fuckers! kill em, kill em, kill em all! )

The rifle kept antagonizing her, shouting insults as it morphed its barrel into a sharp-toothed grin, gaining the appearance of something from a comedy-skit. The mouth of a shark, attached to a weapon.

(Vessel: Calm down… they will notice us.)

The weapon returned to its previous form as it mumbled in response, the sights aligning and the pipe stretching towards its intended victim. This was the moment they had waited for, the moment when their target would be unprepared…

It was the moment when he would try to enter the elevator, a sorely unprotected spot.

(Manfry: fffffuckin´wasties, do it, do it now!)

(Vessel: Yes, we will do it... nice and slow Manfry, as was required.)

(Manfry: aaaalways with this shiiieeet! BANG BANG!)

~

The elevator arrived with the sound of distorted “ding” as a red lamp above it's double doors lit up.

Just as the passageway opened a bright blue beam pierced the fog, tearing it apart and leaving a cylindrical hole in the vaporous surroundings.

The beam violently struck Armas back at the presumed position of his heart, a lethal blow that would surely be enough to kill him. Strangely enough it didn't even pierce his skin.

Instantaneously, just as the deadly shot had struck him, the damage was divided and partly transferred to Einfeldts body, black particles moving through the air from one person to the other.

This was the effect of Einfeldts ability, the “field of shared punishment”, where damage could be shared among companions and divided upon different parts of the body, nullifying damage that would otherwise kill you.

Nonetheless, as the beam pierced Arma, Einfeldt spat out a good chunk of blood.

(Einfeldt: Hurgh… Good thing I kept my field intact, that was a fatal blow.)

(Arma: What is happening?!)

(Manila: We are under attack master! Take cover!)

The green apparition instantly flew through the air towards the direction which the beam came from, just as Einfeldt and Arma dove behind a large piece of concrete.

Eius-Farim was the only one who did not move.

He simply stood his ground, his eyes rolling as he started to laugh maniacally.

(Eius: Hah! I was surprised the last time by this unnamed enemy, sniping from an unknown location... but you know... that sounds like something well suited for my talents! Time to show off a little… ODDS MANIPULATION 2; UNLUCKY DICE!)

As another beam flew by his head and blew a large piece of concrete to cinders Eius-Farim threw manifested dice up into the air.

The manifestation of the dice glew with a bright orange color and kept spinning in the air and growing until they finally showed a result. DING, DING, DING!

(Eius: Rolled a four, a five and a one, someone is about to get fucked up.)

As the dice slowed their roll, a disembodied cheerful voice began to speak out of nowhere. It sounded as if it was an announcement from some old barely functioning PA-system.

(Miss Lucky: Thats a FOUR for explosion! A FIVE for power! Aaaaand a ONE for RANDOM TARGET! LADY LUCK DECIDES!

(Einfeldt: Brace yourself ladies and gents, this one is gonna get ugly.)

~

(Vessel: What is this power, why didn't he die?)

The assassin was clearly annoyed, her bright blue eyes shining with a dangerous glow as she prepared the rifle to shoot once more.

(Manfry: oooooooh shiiieet, blast him again, again, agaIN, AGAIN!)

(Vessel: You don't need to tell me twice.)

Unbelievably so, a bird, a creature that should not exist in the confined space known as the Faraway Climb, crossed her vision and distracted her while she was aiming. An instance of pure misfortune… or luck.

As her next shot missed one of the companions of the target by inches Vessel swore aloud in frustration and just as she started to aim more closely a strange voice appeared from out of nowhere, distracting her further.

(Miss Lucky: Hello little lady! Congratulations! You just won the random selection!)

She did not even have the time to think or react. The explosion just happened, a large fiery flower, expanding instantaneously, scorching her body and launching her from the roof of the skyscraper in the time it took for her to scramble her voice to scream.

The entire rooftop was destroyed, crumbling concrete rumbling down everywhere as she fell.

(Vessel: fffffffFFFFFFFFFF!)

(Manfry: shieeeeeeeeee!)

The flower expanded as it reached for the heavens, its pressure pushing the fog and clouds away, allowing the bright orange sky behind them to show its face.

Vessel was falling, falling endlessly as the countless levels of the skyscrapers passed her by.

(Vessel: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!)

~

(Eius: Hoooooo shit, that went well, that blast might just as well have blown us to pieces. That's what you get when you gamble good folks, ghahahaha.)

As the explosion dissipated Eius sat down with as satisfied grin upon his lips. Manila had returned the moment the explosion occurred, looking after Arma to see if he had become injured in any way.

(Manila: Whoever it was they are gone now, the one who attacked us… but what do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that your attack could have harmed anyone of us?!)

(Eius: Heh… yeah, probably even you, but I am usually lucky. Aligning luck to your side is a fickle thing, tricking the universe into letting you win, whatever the odds… She can sure be a bitch when she wants to though... but all due respect to our sweet lady, Miss Lucky.)

(Arma: That is really fucking cool!)

(Manila:... … ... Language… master. Risking… your… life… is not cool. )

Einfeldt gave Eius an angry look, exposing others to danger was not a proposition he would willingly allow.

(Einfeldt: Leaving it to luck? Whatever the consequences? Deplorable.)

(Eius: Such is my way.)

The demon of greed just kept laughing and soon Arma joined him as the other two gave the both of them increasingly dark looks.

~

The ride up the elevator seemed almost anticlimactic after the short but intensive battle.

Arma, impressed by the abilities of Eius-Farim and Einfeldt, was eager to show off his own.

(Arma: So this is basically all I can do for now, I guess a bit more with Manilas help.)

The burning black blade shivered in the hand of the pale boy, as if it was hungry for blood.

(Arma: Unfortunately I can't keep it intact, it breaks after just one blow…)

(Eius-Farim: Hmmm… still though, I imagine that you will get better at maintaining the sword with practice, and perhaps making multiple disposable blades can be an efficient way to do battle too.)

(Einfeldt: You haven't lived long, that which you are capable of is still in its infancy. You will learn how to protect with time.)

When the huge man had finished his sentence the doors to the elevator opened, revealing the endless rain outside with the same strange noise it had made when it invited them to enter.

Rainy Roads, a part of Sphere 301: Lavender: Sphere of the Lonesome, as Manila had told them, a truly descriptive name.

Black trees reached for the heavens on the sidelines of the four lanes of the road, old and abandoned vehicles slowly turning to dust were scattered here and there in the dark and a moist dampness slowly began to crawl beneath your skin as soon as your feet touched the crackled concrete.

The flickering lights of old lampposts tried to illuminate the area but could only reach so far as to leave most parts of the road in perpetual gloom.

The road itself stretched on as endlessly as the rain which fell upon it. It was a place that carried the stench of loneliness and abandonment.

(Eius-Farim: And so we continue our venture, take care, this is a slippery place. If you fall over the edge you'll keep on falling.)

Arma was silent, perhaps stunned by the ghastly environment. As they begun their slow trek along the middle of the road, he soon found good reason for his trepidation.

White eyes, blinking among the black leaves of the trees.

(Arma: Those eyes… what do they belong to?)

(Eius-Farim: Trap-birds… provoking them may lead to… unfavorable results.)

(Einfeldt: As long as we do not bother them they will not bother us… they are lazy creatures.)

As they passed closely by one of the trees Arma got to see one of the creatures in its full glory.

(Trap-bird: gaaaawhaaa.)

The trap-bird looked like a botched attempt to try to combine a crow and a vulture, two animals Arma could find in the vast library inside his memory.

The bird above him seemed tainted by dirt and blood though, as if it had been ravaged by harsh weather and perhaps other predators.

The biggest difference between the image in his head and what he could see in reality was the neck.

As one of the trap-birds reached to catch a large dragonfly Arma saw it, the neck of the bird expanded, as an elongated black spine forced itself out of its body to catch its prey.

(Arma: Woaaah! Did you see that? Its neck extended!)

(Manila: Disgusting. These birds, as well as the horrors you met in the forest master, originate from the deepest parts of the sea of dreams. The abyss, as it is known. Ugly, damned creatures.)

(Arma: I think they're pretty cute though…)

(Eius-Farim: No accounting for taste I guess ghaahahha.)

Unlike the Faraway Climb the Rainy Roads did not have a clear day and night cycle. You couldn't even see the spheres through the thick fog surrounding the roads.

As they continued their journey it was impossible to tell what time it was but at least a couple of hours must have passed when they finally reached a location that would make a suitable camp-site.

The building in front of them seemed utterly alien to each of his companions but Arma could immediately identify what it was. It was a gas station with a small motel attached to it, simply called Truckers Pit-stop as a giant neon sign was kind enough to inform them. He even knew what a trucker was supposed to be, it was a person driving a large motorised vehicle.

According to his memories, knowledge, whatever you would want to call it, such a place should be manned by personnel but this place had clearly been abandoned a long time ago.

Each one of them felt soaked to the bone, a place of respite was a welcome sight.

(Arma: I recognize this, we should be able to take shelter here and rest for the night.)

(Manila: Shelter indeed master, but there is another, more pressing issue we need to attend to.)

(Arma: What do you mean?)

(Manila: Clearly… we are already under attack… and you, master, are to weak to face it. You need to become stronger.)

(Eius: Such a good little boy... but really, I agree with the green lady. I do think the reason we was targeted is because of you. Constructs always seem to bring trouble.)

Manila gave Eius an intensively disapproving look.

(Einfeldt: I will protect you, I will protect your innocence.)

(Eius: Yeah yeah, admirable and all… but not enough. One needs to be able to protect themself…)

(Arma: Yeah… I know. What do you think I should do Manila?)

(Manila: You are able to create a sword, master, but it is as you have said easily broken. As it breaks though, it unleashes power. )

The green apparition allowed her projection to change shape to show what she intended. A green sword, roughly the same size as Armas creation, appeared in her left hand but as soon as the blade was formed she threw it away, allowing it to be destroyed as it hit the ground.

(Manila: For now master, I want you to form your sword, then once it has it reached its completion throw it away and create another one. Creating many will increase your capability for manifestation.)

(Arma: Yes! I will do my best.)

~

While the others watched from plastic chairs that they had found inside the main building Arma stood in the rain and created swords. If he had been cold and wet when they arrived he was absolutely freezing at this point.

Unfortunately the disintegration of each blades he created could easily ignite any gasoline that might have been spilled around the pumps were he to train any closer to the station.

As one thrown sword was followed by the next the pale young man was quickly reaching his limit.

(Arma: Ah… ah… Manila, this is exhausting, a little help please, I don't know if I can handle this much longer…)

(Manila: Yes… this should allow you to focus more easily… Speed communication activated, melding thought-process ability, my mind is yours master.)

Each drop of rain almost froze in mid air as time slowed down to a crawl. Arma recognized it immediately this time, it was Manila using her almost cheat-like ability to speed up his consciousness.

(Manila: Just as before, it is only your perception of reality that has been changed, but perception of reality is all that is necessary when using manifestation.)

The green apparition hoovered close to him and pretended to lay on a chaise longue in the air, approvingly watching his trembling pale skin.

(Manila: Now… master, focus. Focus, create and create again. Imagine the form, begin the process, finish it and then do it once more. You have all the time you need.)

Arma did as he was told and imagined them, one sword at the time. He could actually feel them begin to pop in to being beside him although none actually appeared while time moved in slow-motion. One, and then two, three, four, five… Once he he had completed the sixth sword he was fully drained and could do no more.

(Manila: That is the limit for now… not bad master.)

Time returned to its ordinary track in an instant and as the rain continued to fall two dark blades forced themselves into being in both of Armas hands. The two swords were quickly followed by four more, two on each side blasting out into reality with an added force which made them shoot away like arrows fired from a crossbow.

(Eius-Farim: That is some cool shit bro.)

~