Cyrus Solaris
With the help of my spectrometer, I separated the rays of light coming down from the bright orange sky and found the asterism called the Solaris Arrow.
I connected the spectrometer to my astroglobe tablet. I used the data I received to determine which quadrant I stood in relative to the asterism I was looking for, and then used that to determine which of the four directions I was currently headed.
I ventured north to the Exoskeleton Graveyard, spending hours following the asterism. I wondered if these people called the Atë would actually provide me guidance. Despite just being echoes here, I was also curious about what would be at this graveyard.
I didn't have the best luck with phantom echoes last time.
There was no shortage of dangers lurking in this jungle. I had to keep my moon orbiting me at all times since behemoths could attack from virtually anywhere, using the dense foliage and towering trees to conceal themselves until the last moment.
The constant battles and repeated use of the Scale of the Eternal Hydra were draining my cosmic energy at an alarming rate, on top of the leak I already had. I couldn't keep relying on my abilities to survive. I fell back on the scavenging habits I'd learned during the days when my father and I traveled through the Astral Realm.
This time, I had no dimensional storage, so I had to absorb the celestial cores of the behemoths immediately. My only other option was to carry the remaining ones using Gravity Well Minor.
But that only attracted more attention.
I had no choice but to abandon the idea and focus on consuming each core as quickly as possible, hoping it would give me enough energy to survive until my next kill.
But I pressed forward. It was the only thing I could do. I was just happy to see my mother again and have her help me through this palace now that I was separated from everyone else.
As I continued to head north toward the exoskeleton graveyard, the bright orange sky dimmed. It lost its color and luminance by the minute, until the only thing was the darkness.
My jaw clenched, and my palms were coated with a thin layer of sweat, seeping from my pores, along with a dreadful itch that lined my arms, shoulders, and back.
That itch quickly turned into a burn, making my skin sizzle.
What could be burning me? There isn't any light or a heat source nearby to do something like this!
The searing pain of the burns was unbearable. The Hydra Scale did its best to counteract the damage, but whatever was causing it seemed to be burning through me faster than the Scale could heal me.
Since my senses were failing me in the dark, I tried relying more on Gravisense. Whatever was causing this had to be massless, because nothing was creating a distortion in space near my skin.
Wait... if it's massless, I can't feel it, see it, smell it, or hear it. It has to be a…
The realization crashed down on me, and I felt dumb for not realizing it sooner.
I was in a radiation zone.
A zone no Starbound wants to be in.
Then the prep work I'd done before entering the rift resurfaced in my mind.
The star this rift was created from was the result of a Type 1A supernova, meaning it would have produced intense electromagnetic radiation.
That meant the rift could manifest radiation phenomena across the electromagnetic spectrum.
All types of light were fair game. I had a strong feeling that once the visible light disappeared, something invisible, like ultraviolet radiation, would take over, with nothing holding it back.
I couldn't help but kick myself. I should've located the radiation zones earlier. I should've prepared better for whatever effects they might have on me.
Now that I understood what was happening, my options were slim.
The ultraviolet rays were burning through me, forcing the Scale into a constant state of repair just to keep up with the invisible radiation tearing into my body.
At the rate my cosmic energy was depleting, I had roughly five minutes before I ran out.
Do I take it off?
No.
If I do, the burns will get far worse and quick, and I don't have a vitalist to heal me.
It has to stay on.
With darkness surrounding me, the sounds of hungry creatures and behemoths lurking in the jungle made my heart thump, growing louder by the second.
I knew what I had to do.
I pulled out my astral globe and burst through the jungle like a frenzied animal, not allowing myself to go anywhere but north.
If I veered anywhere but straight, I feared that I would fall victim to this place, and I couldn't have that.
Not before I get my revenge.
I sprinted through the jungle, trying to escape the radiation zone. I felt ripples in the space around me, their signals warning me that multiple things were closing in.
All I could hear were the deep huffs and the rumblings of the jungle floor.
I wish I had the Solaris constellation. Being able to see in infrared would be helpful right about now.
I settled for the only thing that had been working for me in the past few hours.
My moon.
As I leaped and slid through the terrain, I made sure my grandfather's gift orbited around me even faster than it did before.
The deafening cries of the behemoths bombarded the jungle, causing more creatures to stir and join the hunt to feast upon me.
The burns were getting worse. My hands and limbs began to swell as I burned through more and more cosmic energy.
Just how big is the radiation zone?
Then I tripped and tumbled forward, my head slamming into what felt like a giant log.
Dizziness took over, and something began dripping down my calf.
My hand traced my calf to the source and found a gash.
Damn it!
I could feel the Hydra Scale trying to mend the injury, but I couldn't wait for it to finish. Several deep growls were closing in.
I picked up my astral globe tablet, oriented myself in the proper direction, and continued north.
The pain and the fatigue were beginning to settle in, gnawing away at the focus I needed to maintain Gravisense and Gravity Well Minor.
I have to be close!
I heard my moon slam into the creatures behind me, their remains splattering across my back.
The smell was rancid, and liquid began to crackle on my back, searing through my shirt like acid.
My consciousness was drifting, and my sprinting speed was decreasing.
Then the terrain beneath my foot changed. Shifting from the soft, mossy grass to compact, dry dirt.
My skin began to cool.
Did I make it out?
The gashes began to close with each step I took, until I ran into something hard and metallic, knocking me backward and causing me to fall on my back.
Blood trickled down my forehead, my moon fell beside me, and my eyes grew heavy as I lost consciousness.