Refuge of Opprobrium

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The cave Dross and Raja were now entering was easily high enough to allow the silver giant to walk comfortably through it. The hole was formed like a semicircle; it was clearly man-made with heavy machinery. Dim light would illuminate this dark hole, if not for Terminus still glowing slightly from his firey descend; a play of orange and the green from the zabrit veins was glimmering in front of their helmets as they followed their patron god through the unknown. Raja felt oddly uncomfortable, she wasn't smelling anything, but her keen senses felt the aura of death streaming towards them from the deep below. Instinctively she grabbed Dross' hand; she didn't want to face the sources of her unpleasant feeling of dread alone. Two phalanxes of Terminus were appearing in front of them, attaching themselves to their helmet, allowing their god to talk to them while continuing onwards:

"We are about to meet up in a few minutes with a special person.", Terminus stated joyfully, "I looked up to her since I was able to think inside of Subject 0; my original body. She is a caring yet sometimes pretty cold and calculating Eternal. You two will like her, I am sure of it."

Raja felt Dross' grip tightening; after hearing that, he was mentally finally fully present again. Dross asked analytical, yet with slight fear, the Eternal. Doubt was swinging within the accords of his helm-hushed voice:

"What has an Eternal, according to the personality you have described, then for a business going on down here in nowhere, where the area is devoid of sapient life? I don't mean to sound respectless suspecting false accusations, but I have my doubts that this person is here on her own accords. This place is sending me chills down my spine, I feel dread and suffering thickening the air. Where are we?"

Raja heard silent rummaging in the distance, strange unintelligible tones. No, these were screeches and . . .voices? Terminus stopped in motion, hearing them as well, and looked back over his shoulder, sadness shimmering in his cold, static eyes:

"You will understand the purpose of this place soon enough, Dross, as much as I would like to avoid that. The places following this tunnel are, what my sisters Notitia and Justitia are calling their private refuge; a place full of their own. Our goal is beyond the refuge, you will, however, have to get through my sisters' places before that . . .I wish I could spare you the view, but there is no other way to her."

He continued moving towards the sounds, and Raja pulled Dross aside, asking him frightened, nearly panicky:

"What possibly could lady Notitia and lady Justitia have done down here that would need hiding it away down here? You felt the presence of death and despair as well, so I ask you: What?"

"There is only one way of finding that out", Dross was looking grim through his helmet, "I do have a slight clue regarding Justitia, maybe it is based on her special interest? Something regarding her ongoing conquest to exterminate slavery as a whole. I have, however, no clue what exactly it could be. As for Notitia? Experiments for that the world simply isn't ready yet."

Terminus was hearing Dross' theories letting out a steep whistle:

"So close yet so far. You are thinking far too naively, my dear Dross . . .sadly."

With that said the tunnel suddenly widened, making way for a wider cavern with countless cages left and right. The strange sounds from before clearly came from this place Raja recognized as they fell silent with Terminus' arrival. Raja closed in towards a big cage on her right trying to get a peek at what was inside. A horrifying looking beast was pouncing towards her against the cage bars. Enormous maws, all different looking start biting the seven bars all at once. Raja fell on her back and crawled back terrified, not believing what was living there inside that cage. All seven heads were connected to only one body. Each head belonged to a different species and the corpus . . .sewed together out of countless different beast parts. What by the divines was that ferocious monstrosity?

Terminus, watching what happened, let out a deep sigh and walked over to a huge, messy canister. He seemingly felt uneasy having to lead his sheep through this place, as he let his shoulders hanging losing his posture indicating divine perfection. Currently, he felt towards Raja, who was looking back and forth from the monster to her patron god and back, as if Terminus was only an old man, sick of everything. He pulled out a massive chunk of meat tossing it inside the cage with an exasperated distortion escaping his speaker. The monster fell over the meat, devouring it near-instantly, while each head was fighting with each other to get the biggest chunk:

"Welcome, I guess, to the carnival of madness, the lair of the crazy bio-manipulative scientist, my sister Notitia. What you can see here are so-called chimaeras, leftover creatures forged together out of the fresh corpses from the various zoos up in Scamall. Yes, this can be considered Notitia'S personal conquest to perfect artificial necromancy. I have no clue why she is doing that, however. She is working on this already for centuries and will likely never get with this to the public. She just gets down here, stitching together horrifying aberrations, when bored. Funnily enough, this is one of her more tame projects . . .her current millennium project could be considered even tamer, but its success could be detrimental for our future . . .for better or worse. Please follow me closely."

Raja and Dross followed the silver golem continuing looking left and right in disgust and despise. Well, at least Notitia was only using corpses for her experiments, Raja thought to herself, but what could have given them back their spark of life? Soultech? Raja was shaking her head in disbelief. Notitia was a good goddess, a paragon of many; a forerunner of more ethical laboratory conditions. She would never . . .or would she? Raja's head was spinning, and she was not at all eager to take a glimpse over Justitia's refuge next. Please let it be the results of an innocent yet embarrassing hobby, please.

The walls were now retreating giving place to a giant underground cavern with a ceiling that high up, it vanished into the darkness. The zabrit and graviton veins up there gave away the illusion of a night sky. Terminus broken voice was resounding in the phalanxes:

"My sheep. We have now entered the fields of freedom, Justitias's private place of rest. An underground Garden, where the smell of vengeance is the sole fertilizer of Justitia's everlasting quest of the extinction of all slavery. Each 'plant' represents a won case.", the broken voice cracked now even more, "Please refrain from looking left nor right . . .they will look back."

Dross and Raja heard that warning quite clearly, but its vagueness made them irresistibly curious. Who or what would look back? What even has Justitia sown in this garden? Raja turned her head slowly; thousands upon thousands of straight standing wooden poles were sticking out of the floor. And placed on top of the tips were . . .oh god! Raja and Dross were immediately looking back to the ground, eyes wide opened, grasping blindly for the other's hand. Upon contact, they dragged each other closer, and Raja heard Dross mumbling thunderstruck:

"They - They were looking back . . .all of them."

"How many has she . . .", Raja heard their both hearts pounding rapidly in fear, "planted down here?"

I don't know . . .I don't want to know."

"We - We should just follow Terminus' footsteps until leaving these fields of dread and despair."

Dross nodded barely noticeably. They continued walking carefully and deeply frightened, hugging each other in fear, through the fields. They felt the empty stare of millions burning deep into their skin. All this was too much! Justitia's hobby was too much for their psyche and their stomachs, but they refused to let the vomit, bubbling up in their throat, out . . .not with the helmets still on. Raja couldn't even imagine the foul smell they would have had to bear without those precious gear.

Terminus, who heard all their talking and felt their dread remained silent until they finally left the fields and those 'plants' behind:

"I am terribly sorry you have to go through all this, but there was no other way to help you, Dross. Only our goal might be able to cure your condition, and this was the only path. But I can announce at least that we just left the field and finally arrived at our destination!


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Nov 18, 2020 22:55 by Morgan Biscup

I feel you may need a little more description of the "plants" they saw. The reader knows nothing except for Terminus' warning and that it was justified.

Lead Author of Vazdimet.
Necromancy is a Wholesome Science.
Nov 19, 2020 00:01 Private by Soulwing

Then how to best describe rotting heads of millions of slavers on stakes, without pointing it directly out?

Creator, artist and writer of the science fantasy world Kingsmaker.
Nov 19, 2020 00:14 by Morgan Biscup

Hmm...   I will admit, on my first read through I somehow missed the wooden pikes. Honestly you may be okay here and I am just too tired to catch that detail.

Lead Author of Vazdimet.
Necromancy is a Wholesome Science.