Sorcerer… Cyborg???

Chapter 87: The Cube

"Welcome Freeman. Your journey of fame and fortune lies ahead." Kothar tapped past the corny welcome message and was instantly greeted by a garish projection.

"Congratulations! The Pebble Network has gifted you a welcome mission, with a credit reward!" The message was lurid green and framed with pulsing red rings.

[Awesome. Looks like even interplanar tech isn't safe from integrated advertising.] Silane said sarcastically.

[I don't see why we shouldn't check it out. After all, what harm could it do.] Kothar tapped on the glowing green 'ok' button at the center of the promotional message.

"Your mission is to investigate a nearby plane, rewards will be based on discovering new organisms, unique locations and rare materials. A minimum reward of 200 Credits will be deposited to your unique user signature upon acceptance." 

Once again, Kothar selected the 'ok' option, and was now shown a relatively plain black and white message.

"Designate the current location as Home Plane? Y/N" Without too much thought, Kothar tapped the 'Yes" option; he wanted to return to Atla, with its abundance of resources and dense mana.

"Opening portal in 5,4" The Pebble began to countdown, and upon reaching 0, a black void-like portal opened up in the air nearby, and Kothar immediately stepped through.

Kothar stepped out of the portal into a gray haze, the very air of the plane was filled with a fine dust that obscured the light of an enormous moon which hung ominously in the air above him. Immediately, Kothar wrapped a scrap of cloth around his mouth, he was fairly certain the Pebble wouldn't send him to a plane where the air was filled with toxic material, but he didn't want to be breathing in the haze either.

The moon itself was missing a massive chunk of material on one side, forming a rough semicircle of starlight that barely filtered through the haze.

[Are those bite marks?] Kothar said nervously, as he looked up at the distinct marking on the edge of the missing portion of the moon.

[You'll never learn, these aren't Alliance portals that we've been stepping through. What else did you expect Kothar? Being sent to a plane populated solely by fluffy bunnies, where cotton candy grows on trees?] Silane said snidely.

[That would be a nice change. Come on though, Silane, this hasn't been unlike some of the blind missions we were sent on by the Alliance. You remember being sent into that radar impervious planet, don't you?] Kothar laughed off Silane's sarcasm, and tearing his eyes away from the moon, looked around some more. 

[Please, don't remind me.] Silane gave a mental sigh, how could she have expected otherwise, taking on suicidal missions had been the status quo for Kothar, hence why he had been so adored by the entire Alliance.

The plane was mostly featureless, covered in irregular rubble that still carried some hint of civilization, fragments of carvings and inscriptions on many of the rocks that were littered about. 

There were larger pieces of rubble also, and if Kothar looked carefully he could see the outline of where buildings had once stood, seeing different colors of rocks and specific styles of inscriptions confined to roughly rectangular areas.

[Think you can translate any of this text?] Kothar asked Silane, picking up one of the smaller pieces of rubble and giving it a careful inspection.

[It'll be difficult without any complete segments, and I don't think piecing together the ruined decorations of an extinct civilization was in either of our itineraries.] Silane showed Kothar her attempts to piece together a semblance of an alphabet from what information she had already gathered, but it was a futile attempt, much of the inscriptions were too far gone.

A few kilometers away, the only distinctive landmark that Kothar had seen stood, it was an enormous cube, each side was at least 200 meters, and was carved with a single glyph.

[Looks like something survived whatever happened here.] Silane remarked, recording the glyphs from the side of the cube facing them for later analysis.

[Yes, let's go check it out, I think that's the kind of thing the Pebble is looking for.] Kothar said confidently, began to stride over the rubble towards the cube.

[I'm sure there won't be any danger near the ominous massive cube that is the only remnant of a long destroyed civilization.] Silane's sarcasm continued, she had obviously begun to enjoy it.

The walk to the cube was relatively uneventful, the cube growing to fill Kothar's vision as he drew closer. The closer Kothar came to the cube, the more he felt as if the air itself was vibrating, and his electromagnetic field sensors began to give off a slow, steady signal.

[That thing is definitely charged with energy, the mana density is extremely low here, so there must be an energy source within.] Kothar observed, peering through his mana sensing lens and seeing only wisps of sparse mana in the air.

At the base of the cube, there was a  large square shaped corridor that led inside, Kothar instinctively walked toward the entrance, while Silane protested.

[Come on Kothar! Coming near this thing wasn't enough? Now you want us to go inside it?] 

[When did my emotionless AI become such a coward?] Kothar sighed, as Silane continued to protest.

Kothar had left fear behind long ago, he knew that to become truly powerful, he would have to walk into the very jaws of death, again and again, until either he died, or overcame the limits of mortality. 

Without becoming stronger, there was no way he would defeat Krieg and his pursuers, let on stand a chance of returning to the Alliance.

As Kothar's eyes adjusted to the dark of the corridor, he noticed that it was lit with a soft orange glow from the ceiling, the walls completely featureless, soon enough the corridor branched off, heading in opposite directions.

Kothar turned right, confident in Silane's abilities to create a map, and eager to explore the mysterious cube. 

Far above, in the depths of the cube, another new arrival to the plane slumbered, its jointed limbs folded neatly into its abdomen, claws crossed, hanging from the ceiling.