The Wraith can hear the beating of the alien heart, so much stronger than that of its host. Caradoc sits up, pulls the isolation box off of his head. This all seems to be happening outside of time, with everything else frozen in place for the moment, even the beating wings of Eeee from the crashed enemy airship move in slow motion. The weakened Royal Mage tries to get to his feet before meeting the Wraith's silver gaze.
"I don't think so," Alptraum growls. What happens next is the shadow bursts out with thousands of thin needle-like extensions of itself to impale that bastard and hopefully the black heart at the same time.
The shadow needles impact the Mage, but don't penetrate fully. They're being resisted by foreign shadow, but are still pushing Caradoc down. "Really, brother," he rasps, "Is that any way to treat an elder?"
"I'm not your brother," Alptraum growls and pushes harder on the shadow, trying to see if he can use the Barsuanala aspect itself to bolster it.
"Oh, but you are," Caradoc insists. "Nala and Amena: immortal sisters. One chooses rebirth, the other persistence. The Barsunala is cut from Nala's cloth, being reborn. Didn't you think there would be a counterbalance on the other side, for Amena?"
"You who claimed you knew nothing of them, convenient to speak of them now," Alptraum growls. Realizing it isn't working, Alptraum starts in on a gambit; if this is truly more black hearts, then maybe... He tries to become one of the creatures that helped forge these things; he tries to tap into, and become something just as bad, a steel dragon.
"Do you need assistance?" a very specific steel dragon whispers into Alptraum's head as the change begins, starting with a layer of scales.
"Not from you," Alptraum thinks as he feels his skin splitting, and fur falling out as scaling begins to roll out across his body. His ears arfe also twitching, shifting, as he tries to hone in on the source of that beating. "So, this was your game, then? Become a slave to Amenlichli by taking on one of her abominations?"
"Are you a slave to Sunala?" Caradoc asks staggering to his feet now that the needles aren't pinning him down. "I have always been more of a partner," he claims.
"He's stalling for time," Vorgulremik whispers, unbidden. "Remember the blood beasts. Once his followers get close enough, they will likely sacrifice themselves to empower him."
Alptraum's clothing tears across his back as the spines rip through. "I am no slave, I choose. What you become will have no choice, and you're an idiot to think otherwise," he growls He's hunching over, snarling, some of his own blood from the hard and fast shift actually dripping from him; an ugly mix of black and red. He's not being gentle, nor careful about changing; he's forcing it and fast. And he's also now moving, trying to leap upon Cardoc and keep him from rising.
Darkness spreads from the Mage. It doesn't affect Alptraum, but it means nobody on the outside can see what's happening. The Mage dives, grabbing for the isolation box, and Alptraum lands on his legs, pinning them.
Alptraum pulls as he tries to pull the man back, or crawl over him, to stop him from getting to the box. He's still focusing, trying to locate where the heart is, using every sense he has, including right now being an amalgamation of the species that were used to forge the damn things.
It should be in his chest, at least that's how it feels. But it's also diffusing out through the rest of him, as if replacing his blood with every beat. Cyprian said the man had implants all over, some magical and others uncertain or possibly decoys. If it was meant to consume the tethered, then it must be consuming something else instead to be spreading so fast. Caradoc is still alive, for the most part.
If Alptraum can make his way up, he'll try to pin the bastard down and slam the dagger into the center of his chest.
Given that Alptraum is a bit bigger now, reaching isn't a problem. Carodoc is chest down though, which means going through the back.
Through the back it is. He places the dagger tip just off-center from the spine, his sorta hand-claws upon the hilt, and shoves.
Caradoc yells out, but Alptraum feels something he hasn't since that time in the Gormless Inn what seems a lifetime ago. The tingle as the black heart tries to move into him, but is momentarily blocked by the hilt of the dagger.
"Dagh, if I leave it, it'll take him. If I take it, I have to fight it," Alptraum thinks scaled face drawn angry. "Well, Tulani, you might have to kill me sooner than I thought," he thinks, then tries to opens himself up through the dagger for the heart to pass in.
Things get blurry. Alptraum finds himself on the same barren plain, but with darkness to the horizon and what light there is coming from silver specks on the ground. There a different piece of darkness in front of him, amorphous but with flickers of light within. "Alptraum," the Shadow Dragon says, sounding hollow. "Do you remember me? I don't think you have any of my memories though.."
"I remember you, the one I took into myself back when I fused with the shadow," Alptraum says, "The being Amenlichli enslaved to her will, and made create these monstrosities. You tried to subsume me once before; a lifetime ago. I remember you meeting her, dying, her taking you and making you into that weapon."
"Still dead, killed by iron," Muriavan, or his ghost, says. "And now another dead part of me.. touches. Stirs me. It hurts."
"It animates another, or is trying to. A monster I would not allow unleased on the world. I am trying to pull it from him, and silence it. I do not wish you pain. I just wish to end this," Alptraum replies. "I am sorry, Muriavan. That it hurts you. What is left of you is part of me now, and ... I never intended for it to cause you pain."
"Devour it," the shade says. "Devour me. But you can't. Not yet. He's still in you, resisting, pushing back. Hold onto it with your blade, pull it out. It only looks like a blade now but can be anything. Pull that part of me out and hold it apart."
Since Alptraum is linked to the blade, sort of, he tries to change it, reshape the tip into a grasping claw. To hold that heart, to pull it free. "I will try. Once it is out, it will just ... evaporate, won't it? Or do I need to contain it until I can absorb it safely?" he asks.
"In this fell place, perhaps it will not evaporate," Muriavin says. "It is a world between life and death. I can feel it nearby. To capture it, you must call to the fey part that remains. This is a spell."
"I don't know how," Alptraum admits. "I am not, well, I'm partially fey now because of our joining, but not fully."
The spell comes as a song in Alptraum's head: I am a son of earth and starry sky. I am parched with thirst and am dying. But quickly grant me cold water from the lake of memory to drink.
What else can he do in this place other than call to it and capture it? He can't let it spread, but catching it also risks himself. Still, another of the group can deal with him if needed, so he says, formally, each word enunciated carefully, "I am a son of earth and starry sky. I am parched with thirst and am dying. But quickly grant me cold water from the lake of memory to drink."
The dagger claws clench, and as the heart is drawn out, discolored veins entirely too reminiscent of those that connect his arm to the dagger pull out behind it, causing agonizing screams from Caradoc, despite the tubes of ichor being more spiritual than physical.
Alptraum swaps through those tubes with his left hand, hoping his own nature will sever them from this creature!
They feel disgusting, like ropy strands of mucous. The ones that part flow back into Caradoc, with the rest going into the throbbing heart.
Alptraum tries to draw the heart down through the knife, and encase it in the hilt or within the lower part of the blade itself.
The blade begins to absorb it. It looks.. a lot how Alptraum's hand looked after first absorbing the shadow: a bit like a dragon's head with fingers for a mouth. Maybe there's a throat in there too.
Alptraum keeps his focus on the blade, trying to draw and encase the 'thing' completely. Contain, not destroy yet.
It isn't easy. It feels like the ground is shaking as the odd dragon-hand-head swallows the heart like a Naga swallowing a big.. with lots of unhinging of jaws and distending in disturbing ways.
His teeth grit as he focus-strains on the dagger. "Come on, you bastard, eat it," he growls.
It's a disturbing process, even when the head-hand slurps up the remaining goo tendrils that the heart didn't finish absorbing.
"Must you slurp?" Alptraum has to ask it, and makes a face. He hopes it was done in time, and there weren't more than one!
The dagger-mouth does not burp at least, and begins returning to a dagger shape. Caradoc is still struggling though.
"Kaira, ready a group quickly, you're about to have a gate," Alptraum thinks as he struggles with Cardoc. "You've got sixty seconds!"
"I'm already dealing with this monstrosity you dumped on me," Kaira replies, a bit distantly. "Give me a moment!"
The dome of shadow dissipates, and Alptraum can see what's going on around them now. The Yodhrephath are engaged in aerial combat, having intercepted the group from the other airship some distance out. The ground shakes again, as one of the tooth-like stone spikes of the fallen city collapses inward.
"That monstrosity is Muravian! Part of. So also part of me! Don't damage it! I've got to deal with this jerk soon, the only saving grace right now is I'm a bit armored," Alptraum mentally yells. Given he's about 70% of the way to a steel dragon, armored is a bit true; also a bit borrifying since he's glistening in his own bloody ichor.
There's something that discharges inside of Pancrazio. It feels like Life Magic.. and also a bit like Cyprian. Mind Magic? The Mage isn't struggling anymore.
"Thanks," Alptraum growls, voice kind of like having gargled razor blades in this body. "I'm just waiting on word, and I will finish this."
There's no response from Pancrazio, but parts of the alien city keep collapsing. "I think I have it wrangled," Kaira reports. "What's going on out there, I can't see when the dagger isn't slotted? What's the target size so I can calculate the load?"
"One very old mage! The one I had bubbled! The old city is also starting to collapse in the distance!" ALptraum thinks as he looks back towards the spires in the distance.
"I'm loading up twenty, he should be able to take that many without exploding," Kaira reports, and Alptraum feels the dagger shift slightly, in a completely imaginary way.
"All right, good! Also don't be mad at me, I'm sort of a steel dragon at the moment!" Alptraum says.
"What?" Kaira yells.
"I'll explain later!" Alptraum answers.
The formerly linked men are struggling to their feet, as Trilby yells at them. Cyprian is staring at the city in the distance, and Tulani is running towards Alptraum. It's probably for the best that nobody else is looking towards Alptraum at the moment.
"Keep back!" Alptraum snaps towards Tulani! "I've got to finish him and I don't want anyone close!"
Tulani calls, "Didn't they want him alive?" Pancrazio isn't showing any signs of awareness at the moment though, so may already be broken.
"Dagh, you're right," Alptraum growls. "Kaira, abort, they want to keep him alive!"
"What, not even just the tip?" Kaira complains, but the dagger goes back to feeling disarmed.
Alptraum climbs off the old mage and sits back. "I look and feel like shit," he grumbles. Eyes close, and he tries to return to normal. He might, his clothing sure won't./
"Is it safe to approach?" Cyprian calls once Alptraum is Alptraum-shaped again. "I think the Yodhrephath are winning," he says. "But that weird structure in the distance keeps breaking." Once he mentions it, another of the pillars collapses inward, leaving something of a hole since the others were next to it.
"It's safe," Alptraum calls out. He looks a right mess, clothing in tatters, and still covered a bit in his own odd blood. "We should get away from the old city soon, I think something might be .. coming out."
"Like what?" Cyprian asks as he kneels down to examine Pancrazio. "I felt a burst of Mind Magic, which.. he shouldn't have been able to do. Not here. It must be an artifact.." Another tooth falls in the distance, leaving no dust. But there is a hint of movement.
"The old ship of the General," Alptraum comments and looks back towards the city. "It's ... in there."
"What did that spell do he used? Did he transfer HIMSELF?" Alptraum asks in horror.
"It's possible," Cyprian says. "That's how the Royal Mages kept the Sabaoth going, and probably with some sort of artifact. He's definitely comatose right now though, and what's out here to transfer to? The Yodh will have his men dealt with in another few minutes, and I doubt one could still stay in the air if his mind was being overwritten. I didn't sense anything from the ones that were part of the previous linking spell."
"I'm worried he sent it to the ship. It was semi-sentient last I saw it. Not to mention the monsters in that city. Okay, Tulani, Cyprian. Get everyone onboard our ship and get aloft. I want you to get everyone out of here. I'll do what I can to stop or delay the ship if it comes out. You just ... escape," Alptraum says as he looks back towards the city. "It's been an honor knowing all of you," he adds, then actually goes airborn and towards the falling spires.
"Why don't we all leave together?" Tulani asks, picking Pancrazio and slinging him over her shoulder. "We should freeze this guy again, shouldn't we?"
"Because there's no way in hell our ship can outrun the old ship, if that's what's coming out. Someone has to stop it and I'm the only damn person here who can go in there," Alptraum points out and growls as he sort of weave-hovers in the air.
A spindly insectile limb emerges from the hole in the city colonnade. It moves jerkily, and dripping with the odd 'blood' that had half-submerged it before. It does not look very steady.
"Is that a monster?" Spinner calls, as the Yodh return with one prisoner.
"It's what's left of the General's ship. It's an order. Get everyone on the ship and get out of here, NOW," Alptraum yells.
As everyone boards the airship, Spinner's Ptera coils it's tail around the tow spar, and begins pulling around back towards the edge of the Forbidden Zone. "Lure it outside of the city!" Tulani calls out to Alptraum as she works with the rest of the crew to get the ship ready for when they can switch back to Air Magic.
"I'll keep it busy as long as I can," Alptraum promises, then pushes hard, going airborn. He also remembers, crap, he can't get that close unless he's Scourge! Can he make his body/breathing at least Scourge-like without fully shifting?
This is a weird proposition, since Scourge is more mushroom than meat - something that thrives on decay, as appropriate to Gorphat. And the thing trying to pull itself out of the city is definitely heavy in decay. Doing it while flying though isn't likely to work.
Alptraum drops and lands, then. Sighing, growling, he just kneels down and tries to become scourge completely then! (After putting the dagger 'away').
It isn't like the airship-monster is moving very quickly. This gives Alptraum time to get his fungi on. It's only managed to get one more spindly leg outside of the breach by the time the transformation is complete.
Now four-legged and squishy, Alptraum sort of gallops towards the city, then goes airborn! He also starts looking at towers /near/ it to see if he could nock a tip off/over and onto the ship (in unstable enough a tiny thing like him could even shift it)
The towers haven't been obviously compromised by the collapsing stone spikes, at least not from this distance. The odd heat haze that normally surrounds the city and makes it unsafe to enter is markedly missing around the breach though, as if the spikes are necessary for maintaining it.
So, maybe the shift was unnecessary. If the ship can even survive out of it, who knows? Still, Scourge is now diving in, closing, and trying to see if eh can do anything to keep the creature there, or kill it somehow.
The 'flesh' of the beast is missing from large areas, showing the underlying structure it was connected to, which looks anything but natural. One of the surviving set of wings quivers, and while the head can't actually turn, it sort of lists a bit towards Scourge. Myriad hard mouth parts clack and grind together in a mangled attempt at speech. "Brot-t-t-t," it sort of enunciates, with something of a hisss-growl used at the end for the 'er' sound.
"I am not your brother!" Alptraum/Scourge calls out to that decaying hulk. "I also recommend you put your mind /back/, as that hulk isn't going anywhere! It can't even survive out of this city!"
It's definitely dragging it's guts behind it, such that they're still in pool of ichor and fills the basin of each of the city's petals. The thing makes a rattling sound, and things start moving oddly. Maybe they were once ancient weapons, but not they just strain to move at all. Parts of the beast keep flaking off.. until Scourge notices some of them moving on their own once they hit the ground.
Alptraum/Scourge shoots by and tries to paint the thing in spores to see if he can control /it/ any. A long shot as well, but he wants ot be sure this thing can't escape!
This results in a disturbing number of sensations. The warship isn't a single entity, or else its myriad parts have their own senses. There's nothing like a mind in the parts that are infected, but the strongest impressions come from one of the bits that drops off, some sort of large beetle-thing that runs away from the main body and numerous legs.
Alptraum/Scourge circles back around and paints it again! Now its goal is to figure out where its main mind is, and if that alone can be pulled out.
More the beetle things shed from the bulk, almost as if they made up the outer armor of it. They seem to scatter at random. Even facets of the thing's eyes begin to fall out, also behaving animate once they're free. The thing must have something like a central brain though, otherwise what motivates it, much less tries to make it speak. It isn't being reached by the spores yet however, so may be deeper inside.
Not liking this at all, Scourge dines down and starts trying to weave in and out of its sub-structure and paint it, trying to extend its senses and find the core, if at all possible.
There is a limit to how many can be affected by the spores.. or else the older infections just grow dimmer. Inside the rotting structure, there are still individual creatures - the whole thing is like a colony of insect-like animals. Some fall on Scourge, of unknown purpose but seeming like odd centipedes that are joined together at their heads. There are fewer sense impressions from the internal creatures though, meaning they are either heavily modified to only do what's needed of them or they just never had much sensorium to begin with. But that has an advantage as well: auras aren't as washed out as they are by the external creatures. Scourge's sensitive fringe is better able to filter out the noise, giving a sense of direction towards something more sapient further into the head.
So, that's the direction Scourge goes, a monster flying inside another monster. At least he wasn't eaten and being digested! Still, it's not a pleasant experience, at all.
As it progresses, despite the once-living thing coming apart around it, Scourge notes places with mechanical and otherwise technological levers and wheels and other other control systems. Finally it enters a spherical chamber full of such stations, and at the front.. an Eeee. It's limbs are either missing or merged into the wall, and the fingers of its wings continue into odd conduits. There are holes in the walls where critters have removed themselves or which where damaged in other ways. It isn't as bad as the 'flesh walls' within the Tower of Babel, as there's only the one Eeee merged in. But it's also the one that glows with awareness, despite it's eyes and ears having been replaced by fleshy tubes that merge into the rest of the structure.
Scourge actually lands and turns, and whips his tail at that structure, splitting it apart and trying to grab onto that Eeee! Well, sorta Eeee. Whatever it is. Of course, grabbing is one thing, pulling it out is another!
It's difficult to get a grip around the figure, since it's mostly part of the wall. The head, while connected by the tubes and neck, is at least apart from it. There are spots where it looks like the body's ribcage is merged into the wall, with the skin and flesh sunken between them. It's not breathing, at least not with lungs.
Scourge tries to pull its head off, then. That might work if nothing else does. Granted, it would also likely kill it, but ... that's fine too.
It's not clear if the Eeee is even alive, despite having some sort of consciousness. The powerful tail eventually yanks it free, the neck and tubes giving way with loud cracks. The heaving motion of the vehicle-beast stops at that point, although it continues to shed its component parts.
"And time to go!" Scourge declares and hurriedly starts flap-moving to exit the damn ship! Now it's stuck with flying out of the city, landing and changing, then carrying the head back. Or just going to the ship as Scourge and scaring the fertilizer out of everyone.
It takes a bit of digging to get free of the hulk, as the flesh has shifted as the entire construct begins sinking back towards the ichor lake. Once free, Scourge sees that most of the remaining eye facets and armor beetles have formed a living mat spreading out from the husk, though apparently directionless.
Scourge goes up, far away from the nope-mat on the ground. Once up, away from the city now too. And depending on how far the ship is, he may be flying back on his own!
The ship isn't visible, and Scourge's senses don't penetrate the veil of the Forbidden Zone itself.. but going away from the city will also eventually lead past it, into normality.
Well, that's the direction Scourge goes, then. Maybe it'll catch up, maybe not. It did order them to leave the area.
The hazy border is passed through, with the transition playing havoc with Scourge's senses. Once through.. The Reaper is practically right there, just outside the Zone, hovering.
"I told you to leave!" Scourge calls towards the ship. Looks like landing as this thing is what it has to be. Hopefully they won't try to shoot it as it approached, head-in-tail.
The Ptera cries out in warning at the sight of Scourge, and the archers draw their bows before Tulani yells at everyone to stand down. Room is cleared (eagerly) on the deck for the odd dragon-think to land.
"It takes time for Gusty to get his spell ready," Tulani claims when Scourge lands.
Scourge snaps its tail and sends the head rolling along the deck. ""The brain of that thing, might still have the mage in it," it explains
Cyprian picks the nearly mummified thing up. "Hmm.. some enchantment at work," he says. "Pancrazio's body has been bound and gagged, but hasn't stirred so far."
"If you'll excuse me a moment, I would like to slip back to myself," Scourge comments as it lumbers off towards the back deck. Also, hopefully some spare clothing.