Chapter 73

Lykan

Catacomb of the Ancients

The first thing that Lykan noticed upon entering the cellars was the smell. It was clear that human and animals had been living here for quite some time. Not only had creatures lived here, but most had lived here in fear. There is a certain musk that is easy to detect that all predators develop a sense for.

Lykan wasn’t certain whether he should be proud of the fact that his mind now associated him as a predator. That his mind was now able to distinguish smells of pray, versus smells that his kind offer up. He noticed that when he went in these states of mind, his eyes glowed with a reddish glow. This was good in a way as it let him see where he was going. Case in point, finding the next rung down on the ladder he was using to descend.

The bad part was the prey that had come out to investigate his arrival now cowered in fear. The light source he created would be more than enough to get his attention, a fact that he must have forgotten as he stared forward eyes locked onto Lykan.

Lykan for his part could feel the eyes on him. Even without the mage light being a shining beacon in the darkness, showing exactly where the person was. If there was any doubt about whether this was a soldier from the Azani forces, the smells given off by this person were enough to prove otherwise. This man had the smell of fear on him, multiple if that new stain filling his pants, was any indication.

Shaking his head Lykan tried to be less intimidating. With a force of effort, he turned off the red lights that his eyes produced. By now his body knew where the rungs of the ladder were. He could also see well enough thanks to the mage light that the villager had.

As he made his way down to the bottom rung, he turned to make eye contact with the man. As soon as he locked eyes with the man a wave of emotions flowed through Lykan as his chest tightened.

It was old man Roberts.

Lykan stumbled more than gracefully stepped off the ladder. His body and emotions causing parts of his body to seize up, while others seemed to react naturally. The result was a delayed step down. Then he almost jumped as his bare foot contacted the cold floor of the room. He didn’t jump due to the cold, though that could have been explainable. He jumped due to the jolt of electricity that flowed from his body to the ground and back.

Vrrr.

At that exact moment gentle rhythmic pulses of hundreds of machines coming to life could be heard and felt throughout the facility. Then the next second there was light.

The entire room came to life.

One second there was complete darkness, save for one light source as powerful as a candle. Then the next there was light, overwhelming and majestic.

Lykan had seen light sources in Sidhertha. Almost everywhere had such devices, little carved rocks of runes that could hold power. The lights that were produced by the room coming to life were like that, in the same way a wave is similar to the current of a river. Both were similar, but the river was made up of thousands of tiny waves. The same held true for this room. Thousands of tiny particles of light were created in a way that made each source indistinguishable from the others.

Just when Lykan was focusing on the lights, the room they were in came to life shouting a warning.

“Warning. Bio-hazardous material detected. Deploying cleaning drones now. Repeat: Warning Bio-hazardous material detected. Deploying cleaning drones now.”

Lykan looked up to try to find the source of the voice, only to find that he couldn’t see anything that would indicate a hole in the wall where a person could speak from. Also, it took Lykan a moment to realize that the language spoke was one he had never heard before. He idly wondered why he could understand it, before the reason became clear, his first skill Universal Linguist. Since it was at the maximum rating, it would let his mind understand the languages being spoken and the intent behind the words being spoken.

No sooner had he come to this realization than a panel on the side of the wall slid open to let out a small spinning cylinder object.

Whirrr.

The spinning machine made a whirring sound that was both constant and a bit grating to his enhanced sense of hearing. Lykan froze as he watched the object roll sideways across the floor, then go straight towards old man Roberts.

Roberts for his part did not look like an old man when he attempted to flee from the object. Instead, he looked like a world class athlete jumping and twisting out of the way.

Thud.

Roberts landed in a sprawling heap on the ground. Lykan wanted to go to the man to see if he was okay. Fortunately, his fears were soon discounted as the old man looked to the spinning object that had gone straight towards him, then back up to Lykan. Their eyes met for a second. Then with a jolt of fear old man Roberts sprung to his feet and began hobbling down the hallway as quickly as possible.

Lykan wanted to follow after the man but was curious what the spinning cylinder was doing. It just stayed there over top of where the old man had stood. He watched as the floor looked cleaned. Then it glided back, sprayed a mist like substance over the spot where Roberts had stood. Then went back in to cover the ground once more. It stayed there gliding around in wider and wider circles, until finally it stopped. Then just as quickly as it came to life, it seemed to settle down. That was when it went back into the resting spot within the wall before a panel slid back into place.

“Bio-hazardous material cleansed. Please proceed with your day. Repeat: Bio-hazardous material cleansed. Please proceed with your day.” The female voice called out.

It was odd hearing the voice, now that Lykan had more time to hear the voice it was clear that the voice wasn’t man-made. Or rather it was made by a human, but there was something wooden about the sound. The words were just that, words, hollow and empty.

Lykan tried to think about why the voice seemed so off but couldn’t quite place his finger on what exactly felt false about the voice. Shaking his head, he instead decided to inspect the spot that had been attacked by the gliding cylinder.

As he got closer to the spot, there was clearly one spot that was immaculately clean, while the rest of the floor seemed to have a layer of dust on it. In fact, the track out of the wall and too the clean spot on the floor was also apparent.

Lykan looked at the trail of cleanliness and wondered, but ultimately, he shook his head.

He decided to leave the room he entered and go out into the hallway that old man Roberts had used to escape. Judging by the way he ran; it was clear most everyone had used the central areas to hide in. This made sense, as that was where he was told to run to in case danger struck.

The moment his bare feet touched the ground, there was a second exchange of energy. As he felt more of the corrupted energy from within his body get sucked out and pulled into the floor. Immediately the hallway began lighting up section by section.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

Section after section of hallway began to light up. By the fifth tick, a group of kids and Martha were spotted. As the light illuminated them, it almost seemed to come with a shocking attack as they were all immobilized for a second. Everyone caught in mid step turned to look at Lykan, only to see him and then immediately take off running down the hallway.

Lykan almost wanted to give chase, but he was distracted by the lights in the room he had just left turning off with an audible click.

Lykan turned to see that the lights in the room had in fact gone out.

Lykan then looked down the hallway at the kids and Martha, old man Roberts’ wife and stared.

“Ma, ma..monster!” A kid yelled as he looked at Lykan.

Hearing that the kid, his friends, and Martha all began running forward.

Lykan looked down at himself in shock and doubt. Then realized that his clothes were in tatters. He had claw marks slicing through most of his clothing. Then there were the fresh bouts of blood, and the fact that he was barefoot. Oh, now that he had ample light, it was clear that his hands were covered in dried blood as well.

He looked at his hands that were now dry enough for the blood to start flaking away from his body. He watched as a few flecks of dried blood slowly drifted down like a bastardized version of a snowflake.

Finally once the flake landed a red light was detected right below the source of the dried blood. Lykan bent down to inspect the light that seemed to illuminate the flake. Just as he did a familiar voice sprang to life all around him.

“Warning. Bio-hazardous material detected. Deploying cleaning drones now. Repeat: Warning Bio-hazardous material detected. Deploying cleaning drones now.”

Lykan turned to investigate the far room, the room that was now completely dark to see if the cylinder would come from there. Which was why he was surprised to hear a sliding sound coming from behind him. He turned to see that a second hole in the wall had been revealed. Then just like last time a cylinder glided forward making a deep whirring sound that Lykan was now able to partially ignore if only due to how consistent the sound was. The disk-shaped object went over to flake and began cleaning the area.

This was all so odd.

In a second the blood flake that had fallen was now gone and a second mist was sprayed.

Lykan for his part took a step or two away from the spinning object as he watched it work. Then just like last time the same voice called out stating that the hazardous material was removed, while the disk went back into the wall.

It was all so odd. This was clearly the power of the ancients at work, those who came even before the gods. Lykan for his part didn’t know what to make of that. He knew the ancients were evil, that they had gone into a war with the gods and lost. That their loss was able to herald in the wave of peace everyone now felt and experienced. Despite how trying the process was, there was still hope.

Yet, Lykan was curious.

Should he continue? It was clear that the facility seemed to react to his very presence, though he couldn’t understand why. Not unless it had something to do with his Qi energy that permeated his body. He knew this was likely the cause of the facility awakening as he felt his Qi being the part of his energy that interacted the most when he took a step on the floor.

“Bahh.” The bleating of a sheep caught Lykan’s attention. Looking down the hallway Lykan turned to see old man Roberts driving the herd of animals into the lit hallway.

“Move damn you. Move” Roberts shouted. With that a surge of creatures filled the hallway. There were only two ways the beasts could go, towards Lykan or in the direction that the others had fled to.

Lykan stared at the animals in confusion for a second.

While most animals began moving out in the direction the kids had gone a few tried to fight against the flow. One even managed to slide pass Roberts. The small sheep made exactly ten paces, before it stopped and seemed to notice Lykan.

Upon seeing Lykan in his blood covered state, a survival instinct kicked in as the animal quickly turned.

“Baahhh!” It cried out as it spun about and quickly tried to join the flow of animals that were leaving the holding area.

Roberts for his part, kept one fearful eye on Lykan, while he kept guiding the animals that had survived out and away.

Lykan for his part just stood still. He felt sad that his mere presence alone was enough to scare even domesticated animals.

Am I really that scary? Lykan thought to himself as he looked at his blood covered hands once more.

By this point the meager herd that had managed to be hidden was gone.

Roberts turned to look at Lykan who must have looked imposing. Large broad shoulders, blood covered hands, torn up clothing.

Just when Lykan was about to say something, old man Roberts beat him. Bowing at the waist he lowered his head and said “thank you, honorable spirit. May you now find peace in the afterlife.”

With that he arose and quickly began following the herd out. If Lykan’s memory was correct, there was a slight ramp up ahead that would lead to an old barn. That was likely the same path that was used to get the animals here in the first place.

Lykan for his part just stood there, feeling like an idiot. He could follow the others but realized that would likely add more to their fear. Instead, he decided to look around this old facility of the ancients. He figured it was still nighttime outside, and it would be better to try interacting with people when it was light out and superstitious fears were no longer as prevalent.

With that Lykan of course turned to see the pens, the areas where all the animals had been standing for quite a long time. His first step in was met with a splat.

Instantly Lykan grimaced at the feel of something squishy between his toes. At the same moment he felt a surge and exchange of energy from his body to the floor beneath him. Then the room began to glow, as hundreds of piles of dung lay littered around the floor. Just as he was about to leave, a familiar voice sprang to life.

“Warning. Bio-hazardous material detected. Deploying cleaning drones now. Repeat: Warning Bio-hazardous material detected. Deploying cleaning drones now.”