Corrupted heart, part 2, And I ain't halfway yet, dudes. Options

[jack cloudy]

Alright, I just noticed I breached the 200 post mark at the first thread. So here's the new thread.

No update here yet, though. I'll see if I can edit this post later today.

Edit, forgot the link to the last part. Here it is.

Corrupted Heart, part 1

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Sep 24 2007, 09:30 PM

[jack cloudy]

Well, for one. The Battlespire will have guests.



Oblivion, path to Battlespire.

Instantly, he became aware of the utter lack of air to breath. That was no problem for him though. He was a vampire, and a powerful one at that. He could easily form the air he required to breathe for years, using only the magicka stored in his flesh. There were other factors though that were a greater obstacle than the lack of an atmosphere. The world was cast in utter darkness. No sun hung in the sky, no moons, no stars. Nothing. There was nothing. Nothing but a biting cold, darkness and a pain he wasn’t used to.

Aureus sank to his knees. He thought he was losing his vision, but he couldn’t be sure if there wasn’t anything to see anyway.
“Well, he could have warned me.” The Imperial thought as he dipped into his store of magicka. His form was wrapped in warm flames that pushed back the intense cold. The fire also brought light. What the light revealed didn’t look very inviting.

Jagged rocks jutted out of the ground at every angle. Cracks cut through the world in a chaotic pattern. What wasn’t either a sharp slab of rock or a gaping gash, was a cloud of dust. The only object that told him the world wasn’t truly the dead rock it appeared to be, was the platform he’d arrived on. That platform was composed of a smoothed slab, placed horizontally and kept aloft just above the surface by a ring of purple crystals.

Aureus attempted to draw a deep breath, but he only succeeded at reminding himself where he was.
“Well, time’s wasting and I don’t have much of it. I’d better get moving.” He said, his voice lost in the vacuum.
“There is no clear path to the Battlespire, no convenient road of Cyrodiilic cobblestones, no visual signs. The keep can’t be seen from the platform, and that is assuming there was enough light around to see all the way. There isn’t even a trail of Magicka you can follow. The only way to reach the Battlespire, is by knowing the route.” Jagar Tharn’s words echoed within his head.

The vampire ran to the edge of the platform and stopped.
“Find the two crystals that are cracked. The crack is only visible with a magnifying glass. However, due to the crack they resonate. The levitating force is slightly diminished there. Only one with magically enhanced senses, or a vampire, could detect them. Pass between them, and head straight.” He closed his eyes and focussed on his feet. There, the platform was tipped over to his left, by an immeasurably small amount. He turned till he was facing the right direction, and then jumped.

“There is no solid ground. Do not be mistaken by the slabs of stone you find everywhere. These stones are suspended as well, floating in a thick soup of dust. They are also hollow, so they’re actually lighter than you are, relatively speaking. If you try to walk over the dust or the rocks, you will sink to the core of the world.” He teleported ahead, shifting his location roughly twice a second as he moved through the air.
“Keep a velocity as fast as a good horse, for two minutes.” He counted the seconds as he flew over the rocks and dust.

“If you’ve done everything right, the next step should be easy. Land on the surface of the dust, then turn right eighty degrees and continue moving forward with a downward angle of twenty. You’ll have to move around the rocks, but maintain your heading as much as possible.” He did as his instructions told and dove into the soup. With the dust swirling all around him, visibility was reduced to less than a single metre, even with the light the fire brought. He had to slow down and switch to conventional levitation in order to proceed. As he moved further, he let his thoughts wander.

What was this place? Obviously it had been discovered by pure accident. There was nothing that might draw someone here. He couldn’t even sense any ambient magicka, which was a miracle of its own. Even when within a powerful field of dispel or better yet, when within an area that had its magicka drained, he had always been able to sense some remaining strands. But here, there was nothing.

And then the world itself. It looked as if it had been struck by some great cataclysm long ago, an event which had been powerful enough to shatter it and turn it into a loose collection of rocks and dust. Perhaps if he went deeper, the pressure would make the world more solid but here at the surface, it felt more as if he was flying through a dry ocean. He chuckled. The metaphor was odd as well.

Or what about the stars, or rather, the lack of them? Aureus felt as if he had not only moved from one place to another, but through time as well. The universe around him felt cold, empty, dead.
“What if this is Nirn, as it will be countless eras from my time?” It was an unnerving thought.

He continued moving for minutes and gradually, the feeling that he’d gone the wrong way came over him. He felt disturbed, for if he had become lost, he would not only never find the Battlespire, but he would be stranded here as well. If this was truly the case, his fate would be to wander for perhaps a hundred years before the inhospitable climate would put him at rest. He was just about to stop and turn in the hope of finding the platform again before it was too late, when he felt a familiar sensation, at the edge of his consciousness.
“Magicka. There is still some left.”

He followed the strand with his senses, upward and as he extended his reach, the sensation grew in strength. Finally, he smiled and felt relief wash over him. The pocket of magicka he had discovered was a potent one, which could mean only one thing.
“The Battlespire. It must have drawn in all the ambient magicka over the years. That makes sense. Being an academy in the arts of magicka among other things, it leaves a mayor signature on the surrounding area. Placing a magicka tap in the building and getting rid on any ambient magicka that can pass on this signature makes it harder to find. It seems that I have found it.”