Unchosen Champion
Chapter 374: Trespass

Coop had followed Lyriel right into an open cavern without really even thinking. The pressure applied by the frenzied mana within the Underlayer had been like a bullwhip demanding that he seek escape, and as he sought mental refuge, he had abandoned the critical mind that would have insisted on a cautious approach. However, as soon as he escaped the excoriating mana, his instincts reactivated, putting him on high alert.

On the interior, the mana in the air was completely calm, almost too comforting in its tranquility. At first, Coop breathed a massive sigh of relief after finally escaping the agitated mana that absolutely crammed into the underground tunnels. It was an astronomical quantity, far beyond even what he could detect during the Underlayer Event, and it seemed to be steadily escalating. It was like the mountain was a source that had been slowly accumulating mana ever since the start only to throw it all into turbulence for the Eradication Protocol. He wondered if the mountain was actually a giant mana-sink that was only now being released into the planet. The ley lines were absolutely bursting with power with the additional boost, and as he acclimated to the new atmosphere, he realized that the inside wasn’t that different at all.

Mana absolutely filled the air, as if the concentrations of activated energy had been completely maxed out, but it was unagitated and serene. The ambient energy wasn’t that different compared to what he was used to, just fully saturated. He envisioned that the overarching machine of mana that had been powering on while they integrated into the galactic community was now fully awake.

The calm was a wild contrast to the exterior that left Coop a bit confused as to what he had gotten himself into. It was at least similar to the Lighthouse territory in the way his home withstood the otherwise chaotic world that mana was developing, but in comparison, it had such firm control and was so alien, it made him slightly uncomfortable. It was kind of like entering a stranger’s house and realizing that everything was completely and absolutely spotless. He felt like he shouldn’t touch anything and maybe he should also find an excuse to leave since they lived like a serial killer.

Coop was a simple vibes guy, and though he couldn’t put a finger on it, something was definitely off about Lyriel’s Ark. He didn’t get a sense of hope or security, but rather something more controlling. It was more like walking into a criminal bank vault meant for holding contraband than any of the many shelters he had visited throughout his adventures around the planet. Forget about finding a speck of dust floating in the air, even the mana was perfectly regulated.

He slid the Soul Shroud up to his forehead and blinked his watery eyes as he assessed the cavern a bit more carefully. It was almost completely dark, but if Coop concentrated he could sense the edges of the room. Presence of Mind hadn’t left him, though it was more like an echo of the skill that had given him an overpowered sense of awareness. It was practically silent, the air was still, and there weren’t even any new scents.

Coop almost jumped out of his skin when a massively thick blast door slammed into the ground behind them with barely any sound. The movement that caught him by surprise was followed by a subtle hiss as an air-tight seal was established where the membrane barrier had been. He spun around, finally accepting that, while the outside of the mountain had accumulated a seemingly natural crust of crystallized mana, it was impossible to call the inside anything but artificial. He had to concede that point to Lyriel. This place was unnatural.

Rather than his curiosity taking over, driving him deeper into the unknown to expand his adventure, it was his recovering caution that prevailed. He rushed back to the door, waving his hand in front of it, then trying to manually slide the entire wall back up. Nothing he did would make it budge even the slightest amount. With all of his Strength, he couldn’t make the most marginal of impacts, though he stopped short of manifesting a weapon and trying to smash a hole in the wall with his abyssal abilities.

Stepping back, if he hadn’t just walked through the doorway, he wouldn’t have believed it could be open. It was exactly like the other walls. There were no gaps or other hints that it connected to the outside world. Coop frowned, going from worried they wouldn’t find anything to worried about escaping what they found.

“Are we stuck?” He wondered out loud, tapping at the vaguely metallic surface and finding it had a bit more give than expected.

“Mwep.” Palisteon chirped, now a triplet set of wormy things that combined to be the size of a small dog.

Lyriel was quietly laughing, sounding almost delirious, and when she spoke, it sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “I can’t believe it.” She lifted Palisteon off the ground and twirled. “We’re actually inside an Ark!” She exclaimed with bubbling joy.

“Mweep!” Palisteon responded while Lyriel continued to celebrate.

Coop had been skeptical about bringing the smaller alien into the chasm, but before they left, Lyriel had explained that the presumed reason his species had failed to integrate into the galactic community was precisely the reason he shouldn’t be worried. Palisteon was a former part of something called Malsteron, who was nearly her match in terms of mana refinement. Palisteon was class level 0 but had more total stats than Coop with an even greater understanding of mana to match.

Basically, his species would never have to level up since the individual worms that established the conscious colonies simply inherited the mana refinement of their original host. Rather than a new being, they were a part of the previous being that had been propagated into a new consciousness. Coop admitted that he could see how that would completely break the system as he understood it.

And now both ancient beings were inside an Ark, though Lyriel seemed far more enthused. Palisteon was just in for the ride.

Coop was loath to interrupt their commemoration, despite his misgivings, but to him it seemed like they had barely scratched the surface of a much longer mission. He ended up exploring the relatively small room while Lyriel celebrated the culmination of eons of patience. As happy as he was for her, he had other concerns as he slowly circled the interior.

The space was shaped like a hexagonal cell rather than a more traditionally designed box room. The floor was slightly narrow relative to the overall volume, being one of six sides, with the front and back exemplifying the honeycomb shape of the compartment. He held back from much more than peering at the floor and walls, caution demanding that he avoid adding to what he had already done in case he inadvertently triggered some defense mechanism.

Each surface was made of the same alien material. It was sort of a dark gray and black composite, almost like a mold designed to have a slightly grippy texture. Pressing on it reminded him of a vulcanized rubber mat, but it was solid enough that it may as well have been steel.

The tiniest amount of dim light seemed to emit from the borders of each surface where a strip of smooth, shinier material connected each corner. The strips were even darker than the composites, but the shine made them seem brighter, catching whatever luminosity existed in the air and magnifying it throughout. The end result was that, while they were sealed in a featureless compartment, there was enough illumination to see, but not enough to say the lights were on.

Coop continued to tentatively explore the uniform room, unsure how it helped them to be trapped inside of the oddly shaped space. It could have been a padded room for solitary confinement for all he knew. The vibes actually matched those of an asylum rather than the foyer of a grander complex. Maybe the dim light was to keep them calm.

“Lyriel.” He finally had enough after imagining being trapped forever. “Is this it? Can we even get out?”

She finally got a hold of herself, though the pleasant smile stayed as she paid more attention to the surroundings, reclaiming some of her remembered dignity as she scanned the walls. “This must be an entrance chamber. Of course, there will be a passage.” She added before she started to test the forward wall.

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When nothing happened, Coop raised an eyebrow as her smile diminished slightly. “Think we can break the door back open?” He suggested with his thumb aimed at the entrance over his shoulder, preferring to secure their escape rather than lingering indefinitely.

“I’m sure that will not be necessary. Just use the key.” She responded with enduring confidence.

He tried pressing on the opposite, interior hexagonal wall with her, waving his hand around like he was trying to find a sensor, then stretched to the ceiling and pushed on the edges that he could reach. Without any real expectations, he was still disappointed when nothing responded. While he would prefer to secure their exit, anything would do at this point.

When he finally explored one of the angled sides, consciously praying that they weren’t stuck and wishing for something to open up, the room randomly responded. It abruptly shifted in a way that would have sent them tumbling, except gravity smoothly flowed with the rotation so that they needed only step onto one of the ramping sides, then onto the hexagonal wall that had been the door to the outside. While it was almost completely silent, there was still a hint that their room wasn’t the only thing in motion.

When the movement stopped, Coop felt a bit queasy, like he was recognizing that ‘up’ had changed and wasn’t returning to normal while his body anticipated the restoration. A minute later, the interior wall, now ceiling, opened without any sound whatsoever. The solid surface just smoothly tucked into the sides with impossible precision after the center suddenly revealed a widening hole.

The dark material hadn’t slid into the sides so much as the surface that covered the ceiling had been absorbed into the strip that distinguished the top from the walls. It was definitely an alien solution to a simple hatch door.

Coop had the sense that he had actually been the cause of the action, though he wasn’t sure why or how. “Hm.” He quietly pondered, wondering if his conscious prayer had somehow been answered.

The gap above revealed an enormous internal space just beyond the edge of their chamber. Gray light, similar to what had been within the compartment, if slightly brighter, was being emitted from somewhere to the side, subtly catching on the otherwise completely clear air. If there was a limit to the distance, he couldn’t see it. It was like gazing up into a starless twilight, gray light hiding the stars.

They had gone from a padded cell to being beneath such a wide open space that as he gazed into the sky, knowing they were inside of something, it gave him a bout of megalophobia. What could possibly need to be so absurdly large? It was like the whole mountain, which was already underselling its actual size, was also totally hollow.

Coop moved quietly before he carefully climbed up the side. He extended his fingertips to the edge, reaching his full height, and silently muscled himself up so that he could slowly poke his head out of their compartment.

He took an extremely cautious look, fearing the unknown, keeping as much of himself hidden as possible. As his eyes adjusted to the dimly lit atmosphere, equal with the edge, it was the scale of the space that almost made him fall backwards. It was beyond what his initial senses had revealed, and it had already seemed unlimited.

They were inside the one singular opening in a honeycomb floor with countless tiles, each the equivalent of their compartment. The same design continued so far into the distance he simply couldn’t see the end, nor could he see the ceiling. It was basically an infinite liminal space that zoomed further and further out, turning Coop into a smaller and smaller speck until he was lost in the hexagonal patterns which themselves blurred together into a silver and black mesh and eventually an ocean of gray.

There was the slightest haze in the atmosphere, applying a volumetric effect on his eyes that masked a full accounting of the range of the space, but there was no doubt that it was absolutely, titanically, enormous.

Coop’s jaw dropped as he assessed the area. Forget about being the size of mountains, Coop believed an entire continent could fit within the empty space, and he had a little experience exploring continents by this point. He was finally convinced the Ark was an alien vessel, as promised, but accepting the reality left him with significantly more questions.

The internal area was ridiculous, but it was also nearly featureless, like a vacant warehouse. Whatever it was storing was either fully compartmentalized or completely absent. It could actually be thousands of miles of empty spaceship. But why?

There was one notable feature visible to his naked eyes. The empty space in the middle had a calm current of mana contained within what could have been a curved glass tube that subtly reflected the contained energy. It was easily several times larger than the chasm beneath Ghost Reef, though it ran from left to right instead of bottom to top.

It wasn’t a great leap to understand that the gravity rotation they had experienced within their compartment had them standing sideways within the mountain, meaning that the tube of mana mirrored the chasms across the planet. The actual size boggled his mind and its presence left him curious as to its purpose. Its appearance had him imagining a dim tubular light bulb inside an empty shell or some kind of sci-fi energy generator housed in an enormous utility room. The whole interior was difficult to make sense of.

“What the heck is this?” Coop whispered quietly, scared to break the silence as he slid back down into the bottom of their hexagonal cell. “How big is this place?”

Lyriel didn’t answer, contemplating the landscape at least as carefully as Coop from within the compartment. He described what he saw to the best of his ability while she pondered the situation.

“What do we do now?” He asked after he finished, conceding that it was her plan that had landed them inside in the first place. She had earned enough credibility to take the lead in his mind.

“We should follow the flow of mana to the core.” Lyriel stated confidently, only hesitating briefly before coming to a conclusion. “That’s where you should be able to interface with the Ark and finish this once and for all.”

“Right.” Coop whispered. “Simple enough.” He was just happy to have a plan.

Coop carefully pulled himself back up to the edge and slowly peered across the vast distance she had so blithely suggested they cross. Unless there was some kind of optical illusion happening, the expansive space was incredible. Then, he gradually let himself back down, maintaining absolute silence as he did so.

“It’s too far.” He stated in a whisper once he was settled, shaking his head when she looked at him with confusion. “And the mana thingy is really high. I don’t think we’ll be able to reach.” He was already poking holes in her plan.

Lyriel huffed, completely unable to follow why Coop was so hesitant. “You can throw your little stick and teleport!” She stated, her whisper growing just a bit louder. “I can carry Palisteon.” She added more calmly. “What is the problem?”

“No, no.” Coop lifted his palms and waved them. “No way. The minute we actively use mana, we’re gonna trigger something. It’s so obvious.” He pointed toward the gap. “There’s probably a bunch of sentry turrets that will pop out and blast us for our intrusion. I mean the system has blared enough alarms that I can already imagine what another one would sound like in here.” He shuddered as he imagined being shredded while alerts were broadcast to some long dead alien passengers.

“What are you talking about?” Lyriel questioned, totally lost.

“I mean if we are going to trespass in whatever this thing is, we gotta be more subtle than having me just mistjump around and you just blasting your aura all willy-nilly.” Coop argued, still maintaining a whisper. “There’s probably security systems and who knows what else that will activate.”

“Where is this nonsense coming from?” Lyriel demanded, her whisper changing pitch. “You have the key, remember?”

Coop crossed his arms and shook his head, willing to die on this hill. “I am not moving until you hear me out.”

Lyriel clenched her jaw as Coop rained on her parade, recognizing that since the key was bound to him, he held the cards. “Speak then.”

Palisteon swung his heads back and forth, watching the pair of them, seemingly rather amused by the whole situation.

“The fact that we aren’t practicing infection prevention protocol is already a huge mistake.” Coop started with his train of thought. “If we aren’t being contaminated we’re probably bringing the contamination, unless that weird membrane did something, but beyond that, we can’t just waltz into someone else’s house and expect to be welcomed with open arms.” Coop rambled.

“We can only do the ‘waltz’ because you have a key.” Lyriel commented under her breath, unsatisfied by his skepticism.

“We’re still strangers!” Coop’s whisper became a hiss. “If some weirdo with a pet worm snake and a handsome companion appeared in my living room, I’d fight for my life! I wouldn’t care how they got in! …Stolen spare key or whatever.”

“Ugh.” Lyriel gave up on arguments, letting Coop get his concerns out of his system before they got back on the same page.

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