The Core's Origin

Frank was running for his life. He had only joined Farun’s army a few months before the Savaren Empire had invaded, and so in many ways, he was still just the runaway farmhand who had been the sixth child of another farmhand outside of Guilone.

After deciding he wanted something better, Frank had run away from the farm and volunteered for the army, which had been crazily recruiting for the Tamaren invasion.

Basic training had not been too difficult. Swinging a sword was not all that different from swinging a sickle, and surprisingly, the army kept shorter work hours during training than the farms did during harvest.

However, before Frank had managed to officially join the army, he had been sent south with every other recruit and soldier in the entire Farun army. They had tried to stop the empire’s invasion, but the invaders had moved around the army and rushed northwards and destroyed Guilone.

Frank had heard the stories of that destruction. All he could do was mourn for his family.

After that, the Savaren Empire’s army had swept the countryside, cleaning up any remnants of the army and taking control of all of the towns and cities.

Frank had not even finished basic training after joining the army, and yet had already been reduced to being a fugitive in his own country.

After escaping from a few of the empire’s squads that were sweeping the countryside, Frank had ended up being separated from almost everyone else in his squad. His only companions were his sergeant, Geoffrey, and another veteran. However, the veteran remained a mystery to Frank.

It was clear that the man had been some sort of officer, as he spoke too well to be low-born like Frank or Geoffrey, and yet the man said nothing about himself and seemed content to follow Geoffrey’s suggestions as though they were orders.

This was also why they had been zig-zagging their way westward. According to Geoffrey, Tamar would be eager to accept any soldiers, given their new neighbor and the recent expansionist tendencies that had been seen from both Farun and the Savaren Empire.

Hiding in the woods, sheds, and anywhere else that they could find had slowed their progress, and it had taken them over a month to just reach the mountains between the former Farun kingdom and the nation of Tamar.

Frank had never seen mountains before, and had quickly become deadweight that the other two men needed to help along.

Geoffrey had been part of the Tamaren invasion, and so he knew the path they were supposed to take, but their nameless companion seemed to have been born in the mountains.

Every day, the man would scout ahead for the best path, and also bring back a bit of meat from game he had caught while scouting.

Frank simply could not understand it. The man was clearly a good bit older than even Geoffrey, and yet he could outpace Frank and Geoffrey combined. Frank had never seen the man breath hard from exertion, much less sweat.

Partway through the mountains, they passed the ruins of an abandoned village that had once stood in the unclaimed land between two countries.

The crumbling village had been disturbing to pass through, and none of the men had any interest in using the broken buildings for shelter. Instead, they simply pressed through, and only made camp once they were a few hours away.

The next day clouded over, but the weather held as they pushed further into the mountains. However, the following morning, a tempest exploded in the mountains. The former soldiers clung to each other and to the mountainside to keep from being blown away. It was clear that they could not remain as they were, and finally, the veteran reluctantly shouted over the screaming winds, “Follow me. There’s shelter.”

Geoffrey and Frank would have pushed a bear aside to hunker down in its cave at this point, so they immediately followed their companion. Unfortunately, he led them straight up the mountain they were on, into the heart of the storm that raged at the peak of the mountain.

Things got so bad that Frank would have been blown away on at least three different occasions, if not for the rope connecting him to his companions.

Finally, after several hours of fighting against the wind, they saw a cave open up before them. It was larger than Frank had expected, but it was also deep enough to give them shelter from the tempest.

Unfortunately, the moment they entered the cave, it was clear that this was not a normal cave.

There was a pressure filling the place that screamed a different danger from the storm raging outside. It caused Frank and Geoffrey to freeze up, but their companion just seemed to wilt a bit. “Even after all these years, it still feels the same… Come on, there’s room up here. The place is safe, so just ignore whatever you… see…”

The man’s words slowly broke off mid-sentence as he walked in front of them. Frank was not sure what the man saw in the depths, but it clearly rattled the previously unshakeable soldier.

Frank glanced at Geoffrey, and then they both hurried after the other man, who seemed increasingly uncertain about the cave they had entered.

They walked through the empty passage and entered a large, barren chamber. There was a dark hole in the depth of the chamber, but there was no stink to indicate that it was a lair, and it was empty and dry. The floor was even flat enough that they would be able to have a decent night’s sleep.

However, the nameless soldier was spinning around, bewildered and increasingly agitated. “Where is it? How could they have moved it? There’s no sign of it being taken, but even the egg is gone. Why? What happened?”

The man was so worked up that he ignored that Frank had already walked deeper into the chamber, or the fact that Geoffrey was already pulling things from his pack to make sure that they dried out and were not ruined from the rainwater they had trudged through for so many hours.

“Hey, Sarge. You read?”

“Bit here and there. Why? You wantin’ to learn? Won’t do you no good. Tamar’s got a different language. We’re needin’ to learn their language already, so don’t bother takin’ on more right now.”

Frank shook his head. “That’s not it. I never had a head for words, but I’m thinkin’ it might be good to know what’s written back there. Seems strange to have writin’ in a cave and next to a tunnel headin’ down, so I thought this might be a tomb. I don’t want to be sleepin’ with no corpses, so you mind checkin’?”

Geoffrey forced himself up with a sigh, and then walked over to where Frank was looking at the wall again. “After learnin’ how to sleep after a battle with bodies all around, you quit carin’ ‘bout things like corpses ‘n such. Still, where’s the writing’, kid?”

Frank pointed to the deeper darkness at the back of the chamber, and Geoffrey barely made out some scratches in the wall where the stone was a bit smoother. Moving forward a few more steps brought the writing into sight, but before Geoffrey could read it, their odd companion was next to him. “What? There’s one here too, now? No! No, no, no, no! How could there be one here? There’s no people here. Why?”

Once again, Frank and Geoffrey exchanged glances before returning their attention to their companion. The man was practically trembling, his eyes bulging as he stared at the writing on the wall. “Come on, man. Pull it together. If we’re in danger, we need to know and get out of here, but first, we need to know what this is. Out with it!”

The man continued to mutter to himself until Frank reached out and touched his shoulder, and then the man let out a shriek of pure terror, startling both Frank and Geoffrey so bad that they jerked back, and Frank even tripped over a stone on the floor and tumbled.

“Damn it, man! If there’s anything in there, it knows we’re here now! Now, pull yourself together and tell us what’s goin’ on!”

The man finally tried to take a few slower, but still shaky, breaths, and then turned his crazed eyes to Geoffrey. “It’s a dungeon! There’s one here, too! We need to go! When they find it, they’ll come after all of us. We can’t go in there now; we’ll die!”

While Geoffrey seemed startled and convinced by the explanation, Frank was still completely lost. “Um, dungeon? What’s that? It’s just some writin’ on a cave wall, so what’s the problem?”

That seemed to be the wrong question, as both of the older men slowly turned to stare at Frank.

Within minutes, the three men were back in the storm and continuing westward.

***

The core had only recently started creating its new undead dungeon when the three men had entered the opening chamber.

Unlike before, the core wanted to have the entrance in a more remote location, so that if a few humans found it early, they could simply disappear without frightening the rest of the humans.

However, it had barely cleared the entrance and started moving some skeletons in when the new dungeon had been discovered.

From previous experience, the core knew that its time was already limited, as more humans always came back to the dungeons.

Still, it was very odd that none of the humans had entered the actual dungeon, especially since one of the three had been in another dungeon before, and even repeatedly.

Why had they not entered the new dungeon?

No matter. The dungeon was not yet ready. The core needed to move all of the bodies from its cemetery, as well as find a way of acquiring more. Even more important was moving Aaron over. While the core had learned ways of moving things through the earth within its range of perception, it did not work very well with its creatures. They tended to not be the same after experiencing that particular method of travel, which was a big reason why the core tended to alter nearby wildlife for each dungeon.

It was possible to open a secondary entrance to the dungeon for Aaron, and so long as he traveled within the core’s range of perception, the man would not suffer from being disconnected from the core, but it was clear that the man’s body was already breaking down, and he would not be able to travel such a distance without being found or caught.

It was apparent that the man would need to be carried, so the core quickly determined the most suitable creature, and finished a few other preparations.

***

Aaron struggled to come to grips with all that had happened to him in recent days. Not only had he turned away from his god and offered his allegiance to another, he had nearly been crushed by an eldar dragon, who had subsequently decided to stay in the dungeon.

As time had passed, Aaron had gained greater and greater mastery of his new spells and better control of his mana. He felt that with all that he had learned, he must have already become the greatest human mage to have ever lived. The things that he was capable of defied reality.

Wielding the raw forces of the earth and summoning lava? That was nothing compared to being able to animate the bodies of the dead.

Learning what was possible with death affinitied mana had overturned all that Aaron knew to be possible, and he had become fascinated with the power and control it gave him.

He did not have any access to human remains, and he was uncertain if he should even try to use such things, but he had been allowed to test out the reanimation spells on some of the weaker creatures from the higher levels of the dungeon.

He was in the middle of one such experiment when he was sought out by a far more powerful creature from the depths of the dungeon. Much like when Aaron had been summoned to speak to the dragon, a creature that could not speak approached him, though it made it very clear that he was to follow it.

They crossed the level of the dungeon and entered a small passage that was barely large enough for the… Actually, what was the beast? The head and wings of a giant eagle, but the body and tail of some sort of short-haired beast.

Regardless, it was an intimidating creature, and it was escorting Aaron up and up and up.

After hours of walking, he stepped out into the open air just in time to see the sun peaking over the horizon.

Aaron had finally returned to the surface.

He closed his eyes to bask in the warmth of the sun.

…

Where was the warmth?

Confused, he started trying to find what was wrong, but was knocked from his thoughts by a nudge from the beak of his companion.

Clearly, their journey was not yet at an end.

The beast eventually got Aaron to understand that he was to ride it, and the two took a few minutes to find the most secure and comfortable place for him to sit.

Sitting atop the beast’s shoulders with his legs wrapped around its neck hiked Aaron’s robes up in the most undignified manner, but his seat seemed surprisingly comfortable.

As soon as the creature was satisfied with Aaron’s position, it unfurled its wings and prepared to fly.

Aaron scrambled off in an instant.

He was a man and a mage. If he were intended for flying, he would have wings. He had absolutely no intention of leaving the ground.

Naturally, the beast would have none of Aaron’s refusal, and he was summarily grabbed and held in the creature’s talons and dragged up into the sky, much like a squirrel caught by an eagle.

It took several minutes for the echoes of the resounding screams to fade.

Understanding that he had no choice in the matter, Aaron tried to distract himself from the terror of the increasingly distant ground far below.

To this end, he returned to his previous thoughts.

Why was there no heat from the sun? Why could he feel the pressure of the wind in the sky, yet not feel any cold? Why did he no longer feel hunger, thirst, or even fatigue?

To avoid looking at the ground, Aaron started examining his body. He had deliberately not done this since the moment he had discovered that his body was moving by the power of death mana, as the implications were too terrifying.

He was unable to examine his legs, feet, or torso, given how he was being held, but even so, Aaron found that there were cuts and scratches across his aged hands and arms. None of them showed any signs of healing, and a few did not even show signs of having bled.

His soul trembled in the stone that remained touching his chest. The close proximity of the stone had helped Aaron ignore the fact that his soul was no longer within his body, but there were still times that he could not avoid noticing that he was no longer truly human.

Unfortunately, he was finally being forced to realize that he was not even truly alive any longer.

In the skies above a great desert and the Farun province of the Savaren Empire, a soul wept, as its body no longer possessed the means to do so.