CHAPTER 78: SOLARIS 2
Armin's eyes shone brightly.
"I-instructor Harves!!!" He screamed as tears of joy began welling up in his eyes.
He immediately ran over to the Instructor and leaped towards him with a tight hug.
Harves said nothing as he allowed the traumatized trainee to release his pent-up emotions for several minutes.
He sighed deeply as he placed a comforting hand on Armin's shoulder.
"It's alright now, trainee. You're safe. Since you've already forfeited the mission, I'm required to inform you that your chances of becoming a knight are now virtually nonexistent."
"T-that's fine, Instructor. Please, just take me back to the base. I don't want to remain on this planet anymore" Armin cried as tears streamed freely down his face.
Harves simply nodded as he gently pulled himself from Armin's grip.
"Understood. You'll be leaving soon. Just wait here for a moment. There's another signal coming from within the cave, which means one of your fellow trainees is hiding nearby."
"I'll retrieve them, and then we can head south to rendezvous with Instructor Ty and the others."
Armin's eyes widened in alarm.
"Wait, Instructor, don't! It's too dangerous!" He grabbed at Harves's arm. "That thing was terrified of entering the cave for a reason. There's probably something far more dangerous sleeping inside that it didn't want to disturb!"
Harves brows furrowed slightly. He was shocked and somewhat skeptical to hear that a puppy had been afraid of anything, given their inherently volatile and reckless nature.
"Is that so... Understood. I'll make sure to exercise extreme caution. But I cannot abandon a trainee who might desperately need assistance."
He checked the device attached to his wrist. The pulsing dot displaying the trainee's heat signature was still glowing red, which meant the trainee was most likely still alive.
Armin swallowed hard with fear but nodded reluctantly as he stood just outside the cave entrance. "A-alright then, Instructor... Please stay safe."
Harves gave a reassuring thumbs up as he ventured deeper into the cave, making sure to move as silently as possible. The enhancement effect from Head Instructor Ty's Heart Shard ability was still active, amplifying his speed tenfold.
His eyes scanned the cavern warily as he noticed the peculiar formation of the walls. It appeared as if an explosion of immense proportions had blown the interior of the snow-covered mountain apart, hollowing out a massive portion of it.
'Tsk, how troublesome,' he thought, remembering exactly why he had been so reluctant to work at the training facility located on this cursed planet.
He checked his device as he realized the heat signature he'd been tracking was close.
He came to a skidding halt as he glanced around, searching for the trainee. He couldn't call out as he had originally planned, careful not to disturb whatever creature was lurking in the depths of the cave.
Harves followed the steady beeping as he moved forward cautiously.
Then suddenly, he stopped — as he noticed a dark narrow hole in front of him.
Harves frowned in apprehension as he got closer.
The hole was just wide enough for a Mornan to squeeze through with some difficulty. It would serve as a good hiding place for someone too terrified to realize that the puppy pursuing them hadn't dared enter the cave.
"Trainee! Are you down there!?" Harves called down carefully, his voice echoing through the cavern.
"Damn it..." he muttered, hoping he hadn't awakened whatever owned this place.
"Trainee, this is Instructor Harves. Answer me if you're down there. There's no immediate danger, but we need to leave as soon as possible," he whispered urgently.
Several moments passed in tense silence.
He wondered if the trainee had lost consciousness at some point. Or if they had been severely injured.
A moment later, he blinked in confusion.
"Huh?..."
Harves wasn't certain of what he had just witnessed. For a split second, he could have sworn he saw an eye massive enough to fill the entire hole open at the very bottom. It was as if the hole itself had blinked at him.
"What the.."
{SO....}
Harves leapt back suddenly as he readied his spear. His breathing became ragged as his mind raced with questions.
'What in the emperors name was that?!' He thought in trepidation.
It sounded as if some profane devil from the depths of the realm of death had just whispered directly into his soul.
A bad premonition suddenly gripped his heart.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
He could hear the sounds of the device coming from below. He slowly moved back, hesitant to get any closer.
SLAM!
Then, Without warning, a massive scaly hand erupted from the hole and slammed against the ground with mountain splitting force. Its size and proportions were incomprehensibly larger than the hole it had emerged from.
A single nail from the creature's obsidian claw was larger than Harves's entire body.
His eyes widened in absolute disbelief as his mouth fell open in horror.
SLAM!
Another grotesque hand burst from the hole, slamming into the ground on the opposite side and causing the entire cave to tremble violently.
Next, a gigantic eye rose from the hole slowly. Upon emerging, the creature's flesh rippled and flowed like liquid, converging from the hole into the eye until it split itself into two distinct orbs.
After that, an elongated, horse-like head began forming around the eyes until it resembled that.... Of a dragon??.
Finally, the grotesque creature's entire form emerged from the impossibly narrow hole, rapidly reshaping itself into a complete, scaled body.
The creature's full form was one-fourth the size of the entire Tomber base.
Harves watched in stunned silence as what was left of the remaining rippling flesh flowed into the beast's arms, transforming them into massive, wyryn-like wings at its sides.
His mind struggled to process what he was witnessing.
"W-what..." He let out in horror and disbelief.
The creature remained still as it's eyes scanned the cave slowly.
After several moments, its gaze settled directly on Harves.
A look of absolute terror and dread spread across Harves's face as he slowly took several trembling steps away from the abomination.
He had never heard of a creature like this existing on this planet.
Suddenly, something caught his horrified gaze. He noticed a partial skeleton arm embedded in the hardened, leathery hide of the monster.
Attached to the bone was a damaged, beeping device.
The same device he had been following.
"Ah..."
{SO....SO...SO....}
suddenly the voice of the creature came again, echoing loudly through the cave.
Instructor Harves did not wait to discover what this nightmarish abomination had to say.
Instead, he turned and ran with every ounce of strength he possessed, the crimson aura around him propelling him forward at maximum speed.
'I have to escape! I have to warn Ty and the others!' he thought frantically as terror consumed his mind.
The beast did not seem particularly concerned with the insignificant intruder who had disturbed its century-long slumber.
Instead, it opened its vile and repulsive maw once more as it began to speak
{.....SO}
{....LA}
The creature's eyes locked onto the instructor who appeared as nothing more than a tiny speck in the distance.
{....RIS}
BOOOMMMM!!
The entire mountainside exploded in a cascade of purple flames that engulfed everything within miles. The snow blanketing the landscape instantly evaporated into nothingness.
Neither the Instructor nor the knight trainee anxiously waiting for him at the cave entrance had even realized the moment they died.
They had simply been alive one instant, and gone the next.
Silence drowned the mountain path for several moments.
THUMP
THUMP
THUMP
Then, the creature's thunderous footsteps could be heard as it emerged from its home for the first time in one hundred years.
__________
Far away from the destroyed mountain side, in the deep dark frozen depths of the waters below the valiant Tomber base of the Renegades.
Several eyes opened in tandem. Both those of the massive truck-sized puppies and those of the Fenfirs—wolf-like creatures that dwarfed even the puppies in size and ferocity.
All of them looked upward as they sensed what had just transpired.
WOOOOO!!!!!
Then, their mouths widened grotesquely as they all howled in unison, the sound drowned out by the crushing depths.
A smile spread across the face of the lone puppy that was dwarfed in size by every other creature present.
The time had finally come.
End of Arc One: Starting point.