"Everything's cyclic, officer. Don't you think so? We're living in a dark age, and we'll hopefully get it fixed back up. Then there might be another dark age far ahead, but we've done our part to make things better for a while."
"It's true... if there wasn't any chance of making things better, I wouldn't be here."
"The strangers in this case seem friendly enough. Whether sold by him or liberated by you, I'm now held in the arms of the same person. The only difference that you brought along was whether or not currency passes hands over my transfer, which is of little relevance to me, all said."
"Fantastic... then you wouldn't mind me carrying this goon off to the station, will you? Feel free to choose your own fate. And your own consequences."
With that, the short interlude ends, and two of the groups members have already taken to clearing the gates.
Two enormous slabs of iron, each two hundred meters tall and cast with interlocking patterns of stars, four-sided ones to represent the First Humans, who came long ago to this Earth in search of a world free from ruin. five-sided stars represent the Azure, who enhanced themselves with a new metal limb, merging with technology to live a new existence. Six-sided stars represent the Magicians, who sought a return to the historical, the artistic, and the metaphysical. Seven-sided stars, scattered across the mural, represent the puppets, who became inhuman to pursue humanity, who experienced the gravest mortality in their search for immortality. Eight-sided stars represent the Aurogen, close to the core of the design, who built this place prior to their demise for purposes unknown, but did more to satisfy the human passion for industry and liberty than any of the prior factions that ruled this Earth.
At the core is a twelve-sided star, surrounded by six ten-sided stars. Their meanings are speculated upon by the higher scholars, but the true significance of this design has never been fully known.
To the door's side is a gigantic lever. It takes three grown men to push it aside and unlock the door.
The great doors part with a rumble like wind through the hills. They swing outward, forcing everyone to stand back, and the smell of rust and bone wafts from the breach. They open to a cylindrical chamber as high as the doors themselves, with a circular walkway surrounding a spiral staircase, and at the bottom of the chamber, lies a hub with many doorways, some of which are locked, some of which are not. A robotic spider, about dog-sized, currently darts door to door, affixing padlocks from a bag attached to its shoulder. Another robot spider, similar in build, is taking locks off the doors as we speak.
Each door is about four meters high and pales in comparison to the majesty of the chamber, being made of oak wood reinforced with bar iron.
Despite the building's sheer height, there are no structures that look like stairwells leading to the higher levels of the structure. Iron portholes, made to fit the curve of the chamber, each about two meters wide, dot the upper levels of the chamber but are far from reach; a single grand chandelier hands down and stretches down to the level of the walway, a hundred fifty meters down, but it hangs in the middle of the chamber where there is a gaping hole in the floor, making way for the spiral stairs.
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Topic: Exmortal (IC Thread) (Read 48827 times)