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Ch. 14 Reunited
🕑 Added 2024-06-04 00:40:46 +0000 UTC14.
After retrieving his pack, stashing his spoils in the process, Santi started to work his way out of the temple. He was out of water and was desperately thirsty. It was really the only thing he could think about as he left the cool confines of the underground temple and entered the brutal heat of the outside. After so long in the weak light of glowsticks or glowing moss, the bright red star burned. Santi was forced to wait several minutes by the temple as his eyes adjusted.
The wide plains of long gray grass were deserted. The hot wind that stirred the grass was his only companion as he started trudging toward the rifts entrance. His pack was lighter than it had been and all his wounds had been healed by the ents blood. Santi was exhausted though, more tired than he had been in years. The strain of slowly working his way through the dark, the explosion of adrenaline as he fought the kobold elites, the final grueling battle against the rift guardian. He was tuckered in and all that waited for him on the outside was a starving kobold host that was busy ravaging his friends.
They weren’t even the only enemies out there. The four rifts that opened on campus were the biggest threats of course, but many animals had mutated. Angry spirits, before unable to interact with the real world, had been strengthened. Malignant energies that were suddenly vitalized would curse buildings. There were a whole host of problems other than a pack of five foot dog creatures. It was just that the kobolds were one of the biggest threats. The other rifts were filled with more powerful monsters, but less numerous and more cautious. They would have to be cleared, but in the early days it had been the kobold packs that had killed the most.
That and the fires. Fires had taken off and burnt down massive parts of the city. Losing power, many would die as they lost their medicine or medical equipment keeping them alive. The violence wouldn’t just be monster vs. monster either. Humans would slaughter each other in a bid for safety, for resources needed to stay alive. Classes that people had no clue about and would harm each other. In the next few hours, thousands would die from things other than interdimensional monsters.
Santiago couldn’t let that fact burden him. There was nothing he could do about it but build a safe zone for his people. If he had warned others before it had started, he would have ended up in a hospital with nice grippy socks. That was a fact. Nobody would have believed him, not until the evidence was right in their face. It was why his warnings had to come so late, his plans of nudging people to safety so obscure.
Even if he knew it factually, emotionally those who were currently dying felt heavy on his mind. He did know it was coming. He could have tried more. He could have been honest to everyone. What if someone had believed him, what if they had prepared? All those thoughts haunted him as he worked his way across the grassy plains.
The tears in the world were easy to see and he was glad there were no kobolds around. He didn’t think he had the strength to fight any of them right now. He would have to fight after he left the rift, but he was hoping he had time to get his class and some attribute points. Enough to keep him on his feet for the night at least. He cleared the arch in a sprint, the sudden change from hot summer day to cold spring night shocking. The sweat soaking his bare torso chilled, the straps of his pack digging into his bare shoulders.
Santi looked back at the tall arch and couldn’t contain the smile that bloomed on his face as the silver white arch began to twist. The outer edges warped, a corona of energy radiating around it. The glow faded, then surged, to slowly fade away to nothing more than a glimmer. The arch started to buckle, collapsing inward into a ball. It took no more than eight seconds before the arch was gone and the rift was destroyed. Without the rift stone to keep it stable, the entire world had just collapsed.
“Good riddance,” Santi growled as he cut across the parking lot and to the dorm rooms. Glass was scattered about, twinkling in the faint light of the moon. Silver beams that stretched from the heavens and illuminated a scene ripped straight from hell. Bodies were sprawled out everywhere, blood splattered about like a Jackson-Pollack painting, despair made manifest. Kobold corpses formed the vast majority of the dead, but scattered around the fight were human shapes. Shapes Santi made sure not to look at too closely.
“Tank? You in there?” Santi cried out, not wanting to walk through the broken glass door and find his head being caved in.
“That you, Santi?” a muffled voice called back. Santi couldn’t tell who it was, but it wasn’t a kobolds howl and that was enough for him.
“Yeah, it’s me. I’m coming in. Please don’t hit me,” Santi had to fight back a sob as he walked forward. Safety was so close, other humans to guard him while he relaxed. He had spent most of the last day in the rift by himself, prowling the dark to fight monsters. He really needed his friends to be here for him.
“Alright, come on it,” a deeper voice called out. Santi thought it was Tank and the hope his friend had survived caused him to jog into the dark dorm. The front doors were shattered, glass strewn about, and kobold corpses piled around the entrance. Piled up in a rampart to make it harder for people to rush into the building. Part of Santi’s mind, the weary war veteran part, admired the gruesome determination and ingenuity. The other ninety percent of his brain, the traumatized teenager, simply shoved the sight into a growing chest of horrific images that he didn’t think about.
“Relax, it’s actually Santi,” Tank said as Santi took in the common room. All of the furniture had been flipped over, forming another barricade that the defenders had used. Chloe was there, her thin, pale face exhausted with deep black bags under her eyes. The rest of them were there, all of them looking scared and tired and haunted. It was a look that Santi knew well.
“Where the hell did you go?” Chloe demanded as Santi navigated around a couch and into the center of the room. Thirty plus pair of eyes were locked on him as he looked over everyone. He was so happy to see them all alive, the possibility of everyone surviving had been so remote he hadn’t even risked the thin thread of hope to form.
“Had to close the rift. Without a way home or leadership, the rest of the kobolds will flee. If I hadn’t closed it, they would have kept throwing themselves at us until we were all dead or we had fled. Then they would have made this place their den and it would become a massive pain in the ass to dig them out,” Santi explained as he dropped the heavy sack to the ground, pleased to be free of its weight.
“That doesn’t explain how you knew this was happening,” Chloe seemed to have become a representative or something, since a wide swath of people were nodding along with her. Anger was mixed in with their exhaustion, fear the prevalent emotion, and fear could make people stupid. Santi became very aware that a large majority of the people in the room were holding sharp instruments and had spent hours killing things.
“Uhh, I’m from the future?” Santi went with honesty, as unbelievable as it was.
“Explain slowly, Santi. Like we’re all five.” Tank had set down his own axe and had crossed his massive arms across his chest. He had a deep look of concern on his face as everyone looked to him before nodding along like lemmings.
“Have you seen Terminator?” Santi offered.
“Five years old, Santi.”
“OK, well then. I, or at least my memories and psyche, are from eight or so years in the future. This has happened before. I lived through it. During the last battle, the final battle for the continent actually, I fell into a ritual,” Santi explained slowly as everyone listened intently.
“Ritual? Like magic?” Chloe interrupted.
“Let him finish, then we can ask questions,” Tank cut in before anyone else could stop Santi’s explanation.
“Thanks, and yes. Like magic. The ritual was to send the seven most powerful of our enemies back in time. I accidentally walked in on it and got transported instead of them,” Santi continued his story while taking everyone else in. They seemed at least quasi-receptive of this. At least they hadn’t started to hack him apart in a fear fueled fit of violence.
“And that’s enough of that!” A voice boomed in his ear as everyone froze.
