Chapter 3 the Cube of Necrus

Volume 1 Chapter 3 the Cube of Necrus

I

5 years after.

In the furnace workshop of the Grey Factory, the hearth fire was burning in an odd blue colour like the ghost fire in the cemetery.

Holding hammers, Yanni was building a black metallic cube. It was made of some sort of queer black alloy which was reflecting the light of fire in a blurry way. It was the cube that dyed the fire around it blue because the eerie energy given off by it kept penetrating into the fire around it

It was dark in this furnace workshop, because the blue hearth fire was not dispelling the darkness. On the contrary, it was gathering the darkness as if it were not giving off any light, but something opposite to it.

Crisp sounds of hammer clanging against the metal was echoing in the workshop. There was a weird rhythm lurking in the sounds created by the interaction of Yanni’s hammer and the black cube.

Some necrological smoke was flying into Yanni’s nose and making it way directly to his lung. He was coughing but he couldn’t stop. He needed to keep working.

The temperature of the air was rising and sweat was streaming down Yanni’s body. However, he was still feeling cold. His body was sweating in hotness but his spiritual part was trembling in coldness due to the unseen frozen aura created by the murky cube. Yanni felt tired, as if the cube were draining something from him.

He wasn’t feeling good, but he couldn’t stop. He needed to earn money for his poor tribe.

His tribe used to own this patch of land, but they lost in a battle against Normanian Kingdom twenty years ago, and thus they had to give their territory to the kingdom.

Now, the land that used to belong to the tribal barbarians had already become a part of Normanian Kingdom. Factories were built and the woods were polluted. The environment became unsuitable for hunting and the tribe became poor. They even needed to work for the factory that they hated to survive.

Master Mortis, the boss of the Grey Factory walked into the workshop and began to watch Yanni work. Master Mortis was an old man wearing a dark robe. His beard was long and grey, making him look like a warlock in the fairytales.

“Good afternoon, Master Mortis,” greeted Yanni.

“Good afternoon, Yanni. Seemingly this cube is nearly finished, can you hand it over to me tomorrow?” asked Master Mortis

“Sure, Master Mortis,” answered Yanni.

“Tomorrow will be a day that can be recorded in the history, Yanni. The Cube of Necrus will be officially invented tomorrow. It will unlock the gate towards the ultimate evolution of humans!” cheered Master Mortis.

Yanni didn’t say anything but nodded his head, seemingly in agreement.

“As for you, Yanni, I promise that you will be generously rewarded as one of the greatest contributors to building this cube. Your tribe will live a rich life after tomorrow and no one in your tribe will worry about poverty and hunger anymore,” promised Master Mortis.

“Thanks, Master Mortis,” responded Yanni.

“You don’t need to thank me, you have done a great job, kid. In fact, you’re the most talented smith I’ve ever met, though you’re only 17 years old now,” Master Mortis praised.

“In fact, my dad taught me all those smithing skills and he could do this job far better than me, but he was sick several years ago and though his illness has been cured, he can’t do heavy work anymore, including smithing,” elaborated Yanni.

“I wish that I could meet your father one day. I’m sure he will be really proud of you. Your tribe will be very rich since I will give you a lot of money,” encouraged Master Mortis.

“Can I ask you a question, Master Mortis?” inquired Yanni.

“Just ask, kid,” laughed Master Mortis.

“After the cube is built, will there be more pollution emitted by the factory?” questioned Yanni.

“I’m afraid that it will, Yanni. To reach greater civilization, we need to sacrifice something, which includes the nature. However, I believe that we will invite machines which can replace the function of eco-system, for example, we may invent machines which can generate oxygen in the future. You don’t need to worry about it, Yanni,” answered Master Mortis.

II

“The wheels of fate keep circling,

guiding us like beacon’s light.

The furnace of fire keep burning,

yearning for a future bright,

And the light will shine upon our land,

the darkest nights will end.

The Cube of Necrus is blessing,

blessing all our friends …”

Walking in the corridor, Yanni heard someone singing. It was a sweet voice echoing through the cold air. Though the voice itself was beautiful, the lyrics in the hymn was eldritch like a band of cult performing some unholy rituals.

There were also instruments like harps and drums accompanying the song. However, they only added something even darker to this song.

Yanni walked into the room where the music was from.

It was a band of musicians rehearsing in a murky and empty room. There were torches on the walls, the colour of the fire of which was scarlet red.

Along with the rhythm of the music, the torch fire was dancing bizarrely and so was its shadow on the wall. The air in the whole room was filled by the sound of that strange song. It was also cold inside the room, extremely cold …

The singer was his acquaintance, a young girl of his sister’s age. She was a fair-looking girl with black hair, wearing white clothes like the new snow in the winter.

Her name was Starsha and she was the daughter of the Farseer of Yanni’s tribe. She was the bestie of Floria, Yanni’s sister and she was also a good friend of Yanni. Unlike her mother, she didn’t choose the path of a Farseer. On the contrary, she chose the path of music and became a bard.

Because the tribe had contributed a lot to building the Cube of Necrus, Master Mortis invited her to sing at the ceremony tomorrow as a representative of the tribe.

Other musicians were wielding miscellaneous instruments. Their hands were moving, but their eyes were empties as if the vigour which used to be inside them had escaped from their bodies. They just kept repeating the same action over and over again mechanically, like some kind of automatons. The sounds created by their instruments were thus soullessly boring.

Starsha looked frustrated. Obviously, she was trying to produce beautiful music, but somehow all the beautiful music finally turned into something creepy and spooky due to the atmosphere in this room, but she would keep trying until success. Just as she was about to rest a little, she saw Yanni.

“Hi, Yanni!” greeted Starsha.

“Hi, Starsha, I like that song, though it’s a little weird,” Yanni praised her.

“Yes, it is. Anyway, the Cube of Necrus will start to function tomorrow. This cube is said to be one of the greatest inventions in this century,” cheered Starsha.

“That’s true,” agreed Yanni with a reluctant look in his eyes.

“However, my mother always worries about this cube. She thinks the cube will bring about the end of the world,” sighed Starsha.

“In fact, I fear this cube too,” whispered Yanni.

“Oh, why?” questioned Starsha curiously.

“After this cube is invented, the factory will be even more productive, which means that there will be more contamination in the air, water as well as earth. Dream Forest will die,” explained Yanni.

“Yep, you’re right. But the development of human civilization is inevitable. No one can stop it,” murmured Starsha.

“Yeah, no one can stop it,” muttered Yanni.

III

It was dusk now and the reds of sunset had dissipated. The Camp of Wildshadow Tribe was bathed in the remaining faint twilight coming from the western edge of the sky. Under the twilight, everything seemed peaceful without a warning for the upcoming changes in the future.

The moon was emerging from the east and as the sunlight was disappearing, the power of night was dyeing the sky into a violet colour. There were no stars in the sky, since the smoke that filled the air had covered up the whole of it.

Night was coming and Yanni had come back home from the Grey Factory.

Home, sweet home. Though the outside world was always misty and dangerous because of the sins corrupting this broken earth, the home was always safe and sweet.

The tribal barbarians didn’t build houses. Instead, they lived in simple tents that contained all the facilities they needed, including beds, hearths, cookers, et cetera.

Yanni opened the door of his tent.

The reddish fire in the hearth had dispelled the coldness and illuminated the whole room, rendering it into a picture painted with warm colours and the fragrance of the flower decorating the inside space filled the air with sweetness.

The tent was built to protect the occupants from the bad temperature outside, so it was always comfortable inside it.

Floria was already at home, sitting on a chair, preparing to make the dinner. She was twenty years old and had become an attractive young lady now. Though being older than Yanni, she was slightly shorter than him. However, she seemed more grown up and serious than him.

There was a wooden bow that Floria carried on her back. She was a huntress and hunting had been the major source of income of the whole tribe until Yanni was employed by the Grey Factory.

The father of Yanni and Floria were at home too. He was zoning out. Though Aislina had cured his disease five years ago, he was still struggling with poor health now. Now the illness of Dementia commenced to torture him. He always forgot things now and sometimes he would even forget Yanni or Floria’s name …

Upon seeing Yanni, Floria smiled tenderly to her beloved younger brother.

“Hi! Yanni, have you finished the cube?” asked Floria.

“Yes, it’s nearly finished, but I feel regretful, Floria. This cube will keep hurting this world. Aislina will hate us for we have helped the Grey Factory build such an evil stuff,” sighed Yanni.

“But we had no choice, right? The people in our tribe were living in extreme poverty and we had to do something. Working for the Grey Factory as a smith was the only way of you to help the tribe earn enough money to buy foods and other necessities, or our tribe would starve to death. And you were the only smith in the tribe after our father got sick,” purred Floria.

“You’re right, sis, but I’m not feeling good about everything. The Cube of Necrus will bring misery and pain to this world, and I am one of the sinners that helped making it. In the old time, we could survive by hunting, but we couldn’t do that now,” questioned Yanni.

“Yeah. The number of the animals are decreasing, Yanni. Though our tribe hunts animals, we always try our best to maintain the balance of the nature. However, something else is breaking the balance,” drawled Floria.

“The Grey Factory is killing this world, but I have to help them in order to get money to survive,” Yanni clenched his fists.

“We lost the battle twenty years ago and we had to give in to Normanian Kingdom and its Grey Factory. Anyway, the birth of the cube is inevitable. Yanni. You’re not the greatest smith in this world, but you’re the cheapest, that’s why the Grey Factory hired you. If you refused, they would hire a greater smith at a higher expense, thus with or without you, the Cube of Necrus would be born inevitably,” Floria reassured him.

“That’s right, sis, but I’m still a sinner.” muttered Yanni.

“Let’s go, Yanni,” commanded Floria suddenly.

“Where are we going?” inquired Yanni.

“Dream Forest. I think we shall have a talk with Aislina,” suggested Floria.

IV

Inside the murky lecture hall of the Grey Factory, Starsha was singing and Master Mortis was listening to her song. Dark slim shadow was cast behind Master Mortis. Wrapped in the dark shadow, he seemed extremely powerful and mysterious. Fully absorbed in the hymn, a strange smile appeared on Master Mortis’ face.

The accompanists were playing the instruments numbly with their fingers moving mechanically, and the sounds coming out of Starsha was contaminated by this choking atmosphere, ending up something odd and twisted.

There were no audiences of this final rehearsal except Master Mortis, and the empty seats were seemingly absorbing all the positive energies around like black holes in the outer space. There were several torches fixed on the walls, but their lights were too faint to light up anything, leaving the whole room dominated by pure murkiness.

“The wheels of fate keep circling,

guiding like the beacon’s light.

The furnace of fire keep burning,

yearning for a future bright,

…”

Starsha sang this dark song, her voice struggling to fill the huge but empty space inside the lecture room. After she finished singing, Master Mortis applauded.

“That’s a great song. Thank for your performance, Miss Starsha Deane. This is one of the most uplifting song that I have ever listened to,” Master Mortis praised.

“Thank you for your appreciation, Master Mortis. However, this song is not perfect. Although I have tried my best to rectify this song, it still sounds somehow whacky,” expressed Starsha.

“No, what you feel is not creepiness. It’s a sense of power and civilization. My factory is sending humans to a new era of civilization, in which we will conquer the whole earth. Finally, we humans will dominate this world with our wisdom, with our intelligence,” exclaimed Master Mortis.

“Oh yeah, that sounds glorious,” breathed Starsha.

“For sure it is glorious! You will sing the hymn to the Cube of Necrus, the greatest invention in human history. With this cube, I will bring the ultimate evolution to human beings and make us become the highest race on earth. At first, I will make those inferior races like dwarves extinct. They were always stopping our plan!” explained Master Mortis,

“The dwarves … I haven’t met a dwarf yet,” purred Starsha.

“But I have, girl,” hissed Master Mortis, his voice distorted in hatred.

“What are they like?” asked Starsha.

As soon as these words were spoken, Master Mortis commenced laughing madly like an insane psycho. This laughter was nothing humans could make. It was something made of pure madness and insanity. The accompanists started to laugh slightly too, their teeth clashing and generating some crisp sounds. The murky and deeply seamed face of Mater Mortis was distorting, transforming abnormally into an inhuman shape. Grinning broadly, his mouth was prolonged all the way to his ears.

All the sounds in this room formed an invisible whirlpool of dreadfulness. Starsha was frozen to the spot with a chill climbing through all her vines. She wanted to escape the scene but she couldn’t move at all.

Soon Master Mortis stopped laughing, and so did the accompanists in his domination. The whole room sank into the dead silence in a minute.

“They are an inferior race. They’re violent, cunning and there is only cruelty in their twisted hearts. One day I will cleanse the dwarves on this earth and the earth will thus be purified,” answered Master Mortis.

The shadow behind Master Mortis seemingly became even longer.

The Cube of Necrus was lying in the furnace workshop right now. Shadow was spreading with the cube being its centre. A new era would come, inevitably.