An Asnean Odyssey: Bastien

Nineteen

Liet opened his eyes to find that he was inside of a large, relatively empty room. The entire structure was made out of rusty looking metal. Liet could hear the faint sound of grinding gears in the distance. There was only one exit, which was directly in front of Liet. Skye was standing next to him, fiddling with her multi tool.

“What happened to it?” Liet asked.

“That blast took a lot of energy, so I’ve got to recharge it,” Skye responded.

“With blood?”

“Yeah.”

“How much does it take?”

“Hopefully not too much,” Skye sighed.

“Where do you think Oscar is?” Liet asked as he stepped off of the pad and into the center of the room.

“I’m not really sure...I don’t even know why he’d want to come up here...”

“Where do you want to start looking...?”

“Probably the engine room,” Skye thought. “That’s where you’d go if you were planning to actually do anything. Everything else is just machinery.”

“Is it far from here?”

“Not really. The path doesn’t branch out until after the engine room, so we’ve got a straight shot there.”

“That’s good, I’d hate to get lost up here,” Liet sighed with relief. “Er, wait. We’re in space right now, aren’t we?”

“Yeah,” Skye replied as she headed for the exit. It was simple a hole in the wall that led to a catwalk wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

“How are we breathing, then?”

Skye stopped on the other side of the hole and turned to face Liet. “Can I just say it’s magic...?”

“No.”

“We’re not actually breathing...” Skye sighed. “That tablet I made you eat temporarily slows down the rate at which your body uses oxygen. You could think of it like holding our breath for twenty minutes.”

“Twenty minutes?!” Liet gasped and began to quickly walk towards Skye. “We’ve only got twenty minutes?”

“Yeah...”

“We’d better hu-” Liet froze as soon as he stepped through the hole. “Wha...”

The catwalk ran through an enormous chamber filled with strange containers. Each container had a glass window in the front. He walked over to the closest one, which was sitting about a foot away from the catwalk to his left, and looked inside. A middle-aged man was leaning upright against the back of the container. The man had at least twenty syringes stuck into his body at different locations that were slowly sapping his blood. Three tubes were stuck into his throat, which Liet assumed were to keep him alive.

“What is this...?” Liet asked, still a bit shocked.

“...This is where Shefira gets its power...” Skye explained with a depressed tone.

“You said there were other ways to power things...”

“I never said Shefira used them...”

“This is terrible...” Liet stated as he began to walk along the catwalk, occasionally peering into the containers as he made his way through the chamber. Skye followed sheepishly behind him. “Isn’t there some way we could get them out?”

“And then what?” Skye asked. “They’re born here, they die here. They’ve never opened their eyes. If we tried to get them out, they’d collapse and die.”

“I... I just want to get out of here,” Liet said. The pair continued walking down the catwalk. When they had made it far enough that Liet could see the hole in the wall, the pair was stopped by a thumping noise to the right. Skye ignored it, but Liet turned to see what it was. A young woman had fallen forward onto the glass of the container. For a moment, she just lay there, her chest slowly rising and collapsing. After a few seconds, her eyes started to open. She looked around slowly, as though she was uncertain what was happening. She shifted her head down a bit and noticed all of the needles jammed into her body. She began to panic and flail around, ripping out the needles, causing her to start bleeding slowly. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

“Skye!” Liet cried out. “We have...”

Liet stopped speaking mid-sentence, unable to take his eyes away from the woman. She had slipped on her own blood and fell, causing the tubes in her throat to be ripped out. She was now bleeding rapidly from her neck, sitting propped up against the glass in a pool of her own essence, staring blankly into Liet’s eyes. A quiet gurgling noise could be heard, which began to fade and eventually ceased.

“Let’s go...” Skye whispered quietly.

“Y-Y...” Liet couldn’t even speak. He just followed behind Skye as they traversed the rest of the catwalk. They made their way to the hole in the wall when the multi tool started to hum and emit a green glow. Skye spread out her fingers and slowly started to tap the glove-like object and run her fingers along its digits.

“The engine room is just through here. Hopefully Oscar will be there as well...” Skye explained to Liet as she continued to tend to her multi tool A loud shattering noise echoed through the chamber.

“W-what was...” Liet tried to ask.

“Just try to ignore it. You’re probably better off not knowing.”

Liet continued to watch Skye fiddle with her glove as he tried to ignore the noise. She stroked it and tapped it for about a minute before finally flicking the back of her hand, causing the glove to shatter into the air and start to reassemble itself into the familiar rectangle that Liet had become accustomed to. Liet heard another noise, this time a sort of pounding noise. He tried to ignore it, focusing his attention on the multi tool, which was now about half way through its transformation, but the noise just kept persisting. Finally, his curiosity got the best of him. He turned around to find himself face to face with a deformed creature who resembled a man, but any humanity it may have had was long gone. It stood at least eight feet tall and had an elongated snout, with both arms having been torn away, replaced with crude clockwork imitations. The skin around its shoulders was blistered and red, as though its body were trying to reject its artificial limbs. The lower jaw of the creature, as well as its teeth, had been replaced with artificial components as well. The same tubes that all of the other subjects had were dangling from its throat. Liet was frozen in place as he gazed into the hollow, lifeless, glowing orbs that had replaced the creature’s eyes. The creature grasped Liet in one of its metallic hands and lobbed him behind it, causing him to come crashing down onto the catwalk.

“Liet!” Skye cried out as she spun around. The creature released a metallic scream before thrusting its arm into Skye’s chest, launching her through the hole in the wall.

With Skye gone, the creature returned its attention to Liet, who was still trying to recover from his tumble. The creature started to lumber towards Liet while it reached at its throat and tore out the dangling tubes, causing thick, white blood to spill out. Liet managed to bring himself to his feet while he scrambled to think of a way to deal with the creature. The creature suddenly lunged at Liet, closing the distance and firmly squeezing him between its hands. The monster lifted Liet into the air and began to squeeze the life out of him. The world around Liet froze as he struggled to look for something he could use. At the end of the catwalk, he spied Skye’s multi tool casually laying on the ground. The creature continued to squeeze Liet, the extra exertion causing more blood to squirt out of its throat. Liet flailed around, trying to kicking the beast in the face. When that didn’t work, he shifted his attention to the hole in its throat. He used all of his remaining strength to jam his foot into the creature’s throat. The monster released a scream of agony as it threw Liet across the catwalk again. Liet landed a few feet away from the multi tool, which he quickly grabbed. Unsure how to operate it, he began to stroke, flick, rub, slap, and tap the strange device. It did everything from shoot bubbles to tell him he was doing a good job. The enraged beast, having recovered from Liet’s kick, began to sprint at Liet, who was slowly backing away, trying to find something he could do with the multi tool. The beast lunged again, grasping Liet firmly in its hands. Luckily, it didn’t restrain Liet’s arms this time. The beast appeared to be smiling, although that was impossible due to its mechanical jaw, as it brought Liet closer to its face, slowly opening its mouth. Liet panicked and squeezed the multi tool as hard as he could. Once it started to emit an eerie green glow, he jammed his arm into the creature’s mouth and down it’s throat. The creature dropped Liet and began to claw at its throat as it gagged on the multi tool After a few seconds, the top half of the creature was torn to shreds as the multi tool shattered into countless pieces. What remained of the monsters body collapsed on the catwalk, its thick, white blood dripping through the grating. Liet picked himself up and took a deep breath as he headed towards the engine room.

“...dea....no...sa...you...hahah....” Liet could hear someone speaking as he passed through the hole in the wall.

“Oh, how fun it’s going to be to rule both worlds,” Oscar’s voice sounded much different than it had before. It was filled with fear and desperation. “I can’t believe no one bothered to see what I was doing up here. Oh, I can hardly wait to cross over!”

Liet walked along the catwalk for a while before he came to find Oscar, who was standing in front of a large control panel on the catwalk. Behind him there were several paths, one of which stopped above a large mirror-like object after a few feet. The rest of the engine room was filled with gears grinding loudly against each other.

“Ah, Liet,” Oscar smiled nervously. “Skye’s told me all about you.”

Liet remained silent. Oscar had Skye in his arm with a glimmering silver dagger pressed against her throat. A bit of blood was dripping down from where the blade was digging into her skin and her nose was bleeding, most likely from when the creature had hit her.

“What are you going to do now? Kill me? Ha!” Oscar laughed for a moment before nervously examining Liet, who continued to remain silent. “Why are you so willing to help her? Because she picked you up out of the gutter? I’m not the bad guy here, she is!”

Oscar raised Skye’s arm and rolled up her sleeve, revealing her mark of shame.

“She’s a monster, Liet. She was branded for a reason.”

“Liet...” Skye’s eyes were faded and black.

“All those people in there, the teslaguards, even my precious behemoths, she’s responsible for all of them!” Oscar had a half smile on his face. “What did she tell you? That she was born with some disease? It’s a birthmark? Or maybe that she’s an orphan? And you believed that bullshit? She’s been lying to you this whole time!”

“Liet...” Skye quietly cried out again. “You have to do this...”

“He doesn’t have to do anything!” Oscar shouted at Skye as he pressed the knife into her neck even more.

“Kill us both, Liet...” tears were trickling down Skye’s cheeks. “Kill me...”

“You hear that, Liet? She wants you to kill her!” a demonic smile engulfed Oscar’s face. “Now that you know her secrets, she just wants to die. And you know what? I’m more than happy to oblige.”

Oscar jammed the silver blade into Skye’s neck, causing her pink blood to immediately spray out onto the catwalk. He pulled the knife towards him with all of his might, opening the front half of Skye’s throat.

Liet felt something inside of his head snap. The world froze as he walked towards Oscar and Skye. He stopped in front of them for a moment, staring into Skye’s faded eyes. Guy walked past him, casually tossing the ebony dagger in his hand, and leaned up against the railing.

“Well, Liet?” Guy asked. Liet tried to speak, but he couldn’t find the words. Guy sighed as he looked at Oscar. “What are we going to do with you?”

“...I... I promised...” Liet began to speak.

“And what was that promise?” Guy asked.

“I promised that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her...” Liet replied. “I promised everyone...”

“Who’s everyone, exactly?”

“Sylvan...Skye...” Liet paused for a moment. “Myself...”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“What can I do?! She’s dead!” Liet lashed out at Guy.

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s not dead, she’s just very close to death, y’know?” Guy corrected.

“She’s going to die...”

“If you don’t do something, yes, she will.”

“What can I do...” Liet asked. Guy caught the ebony dagger by the blade and handed it to Liet.

“You’ve got sixty seconds,” Guy said as he walked down the catwalk past Liet.

The blood began to flow freely out of Skye’s neck again, while Oscar was laughing hysterically. Liet stared at Oscar for a moment before slamming the blade of the ebony dagger into his foot, causing him to cry out in pain, releasing his grip on the silver dagger he had used to restrain Skye. Liet caught the silver dagger in his left hand and removed the ebony dagger from Oscar’s foot with his right. He jumped up and jammed both daggers into Oscar’s stomach, then pushed him over the railing of the catwalk. Liet could hear Oscar screaming as the sound of the gears crushing his bones echoed through the engine room. Oscar’s cries ended with a loud pop, leaving only the sound of Skye choking on her own blood. Liet bent down and wrapped his arms around Skye and started dragging her towards the dead-end catwalk.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you...” Liet whisper to Skye as he dragged her lifeless body. Her eyes were completely blank, with no sign of color

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you...” Liet kept repeating until he reached the of the catwalk.

“I love you...” Liet whispered as he pressed his lips against her forehead. Liet held Skye tight as he plunged off of the catwalk, down towards the mirror-like object below. He could feel his eyes burning as the two of them plummeted downwards. When the pair passed through the mirror, it shattered into countless fragments, which hung motionless in the air.

Liet’s eyes slowly opened. His vision was dark and blurry, but he could make out the walls of an alley. The moon was hanging overhead, looking down on him in sorrow. He could feel something gushing out of his stomach, but his brain couldn’t piece together was it was. A small piece of paper with messy writing was crumpled on the ground in front of him. As the world began to fade into darkness, he could hear a familiar voice calling out for help.