Location: The Motherplace
The Valley of Silent Structures • Universe Wyverno
"This time Oblivion did not argue."
Lazard pulled him across the fractured cliffs while the valley shook behind them.
THHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOM
Another vibration spread through the ruins.
Stone pillars collapsed into the abyss below as enormous shapes continued moving beneath the darkness.
Oblivion forced himself forward despite the pain tearing through his arm.
Every few seconds space flickered strangely around his fingers.
Small distortions.
Tiny folds in reality that vanished almost instantly.
Lazard noticed them.
His expression grew worse.
"You need to stop using that ability."
Oblivion breathed heavily.
"You say that like I can control it! "
Lazard kept moving across the broken pathways ahead of them.
Oblivion followed closely behind.
Above them, floating structures drifted silently through the glowing skies of the Motherplace. But now the beautiful colors overhead looked unstable.
The rivers of light across the sky were breaking apart.
Thin black cracks spread between them.
Like the world itself was under pressure.
Behind them
BOOOOOOOOOOM
One of the creatures climbed fully onto the cliffs.
Its enormous body dragged across the ruins while dozens of eyes opened across its shifting surface.
Oblivion looked back for only a second.
That was enough.
He saw human faces moving beneath the creature's skin again.
Mouths opening silently.
Trapped.
The thing suddenly turned toward him.
Every eye focused directly on his position.
Then it moved
The cliffs shattered beneath its weight as it rushed toward them.
Lazard cursed under his breath.
"We split up."
Oblivion looked at him sharply.
"What?"
"If it follows both of us, we die."
Before Oblivion could answer, Lazard shoved him sideways toward a narrow passage between ruined structures.
"GO!"
The creature slammed into the ground between them.
BOOOOOOOOOOM
Stone exploded upward.
Dust swallowed the area instantly.
Oblivion crashed through the narrow ruins while debris rained around him.
Behind him he heard metal clash violently.
Lazard was fighting it.
Oblivion stopped suddenly.
Breathing hard.
He looked back toward the dust clouds.
Part of him wanted to return immediately.
But another part remembered the fear in Lazard's face.
For the first time since meeting him, Lazard sounded desperate.
Oblivion kept moving.
The narrow passage twisted deeper through ancient ruins.
Broken symbols covered the walls around him.
Some shifted when he looked directly at them.
Others seemed to move only from the corner of his vision.
The whispers returned inside him again.
Distance is fiction
Position can break
Open further
Oblivion grabbed the sides of his head.
"Shut up…"
The whispers stopped instantly.
Silence filled the ruins.
Then
tap
Oblivion froze.
Another sound.
tap
Slow footsteps.
Someone else was inside the ruins.
Oblivion slowly reached for his sword.
The passage ahead was dark now.
Only faint silver light from the sky reached inside.
A figure appeared at the end of the corridor.
Wearing dark robes covered in stitched symbols.
Its face was hidden behind layers of black cloth.
But beneath the clothe
something moved.
Like too many faces were pressing outward from underneath.
Oblivion's grip tightened.
The figure stopped walking.
Then spoke softly.
"He found you sooner than expected."
Its voice sounded wrong.
Like multiple voices overlapping imperfectly.
Oblivion stepped backward slightly.
"Who are you?"
The figure tilted its head.
"A survivor."
The walls around the corridor suddenly distorted.
Space bent sideways for a second.
Oblivion immediately felt pain shoot through his arm again.
The figure noticed.
"You hear it too now."
Oblivion stared coldly.
"Hear what?"
"The fracture."
Silence.
The figure slowly raised one hand.
Its fingers were unnaturally long.
Bent incorrectly at the joints.
"The space between places."
Oblivion remembered what the Seer had said earlier.
The space between realities.
The figure stepped closer.
"When you bent space, it noticed you."
Oblivion's chest tightened slightly.
"What noticed me?"
The figure did not answer immediately.
Then
all the faces beneath the cloth suddenly pushed outward at once.
Screaming silently beneath the fabric.
"The thing below the valley."
Oblivion felt cold fear crawl through him.
Behind the figure, the darkness inside the corridor began moving.
Not shadows.
Something deeper.
Then a massive eye slowly opened inside the darkness behind the robed figure.
Oblivion froze instantly.
The eye was enormous.
Watching him without blinking.
The robed figure whispered:
"It wants the one carrying the fracture."
Suddenly the entire corridor twisted violently.
KRRRRRRRRRRK
Space folded inward.
The walls bent unnaturally.
Oblivion stumbled backward From himself.
His own power was reacting automatically.
The corridor around him began compressing.
Stone cracked loudly.
The robed figure stepped back immediately.
"You cannot control it yet."
Oblivion's breathing became unstable.
The pressure in his arm spread into his chest now.
Reality flickered around him again.
Different positions.
Different angles.
For one second he saw multiple versions of the corridor overlapping each other.
Then
BOOOOOOOOOOM
The entire passage collapsed.
Oblivion reacted instantly.
Without thinking
he forced the space in front of him apart.
KRRRRRRRRRK
The collapsing debris suddenly slowed Spatially
The distance between falling objects stretched unnaturally.
Everything moved slower inside the distorted area.
Oblivion stared in shock.
He had not stopped time.
He had expanded space itself between moments of movement.
The debris crashed around him harmlessly instead of crushing him instantly.
But the strain hit immediately afterward.
Blood poured heavily from his nose.
His knees nearly gave out.
The robed figure stared at him in silence.
Then whispered
"That ability should not exist in a living mind."
Far behind the ruins
THHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOM
Something enormous roared beneath the valley.
And this time
the entire Motherplace shook with it.
To be continue.