Volume 1 Chapter 5 Exodus from the Grey Factory

Chapter 5 Exodus from Grey Factory

I

Master Mortis was sleeping inside his bedroom, while Floria, Yanni and Starsha were standing outside his room stealthily.

“Be quiet, Master Mortis was sleeping there. By the way he is a light sleeper and even the smallest noise can wake him up,” warned Yanni. He had been working for Master Mortis for several years, thus he knew him well.

“Don’t be afraid,” Starsha reassured them, striking her toning fork, “I said that I could create some special soundwaves, to be precise, a barrier composed of pure soundwaves, within which, all the noises made by us would be neutralized. This technique is called ‘silence barrier’. As long as you two stay within the silence barrier I created, any noises of ours will be inaudible to Master Mortis.”

Yanni and Floria nodded. They knew that Starsha was really good at manipulating soundwaves. Lightly and slowly, Yanni opened the door of Master Mortis’ bedroom.

The room was totally dark and silent because Master Mortis didn’t grunt at all. The toning fork of Starsha was vibrating and the so-called silence barrier was really working since they couldn’t even hear their own sounds of feet.

There was a black desk at the other end of the room, on which lay a grey notebook. Floria had sharp eyes and she soon recognized that there were three letters on the cover of that notebook: LOG. Without a shadow of doubt, that was Master Mortis’ work log.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Yanni saw that Master Mortis was turning over in bed. His movement looked weirdly stiffy as if he were a zombie.

Finally, after thirty seconds of moving in stealth mode, they arrived beside the table. Yanni put his right hand on the cover of the work log. Nothing happened, with no alarm triggered. Within the silence barrier, they didn’t made any noise and Master Mortis was still deep in sleep, having no idea of what had happened.

Yanni then took the work log and sneaked out of the room with the girls.

Starsha withdrawn her silence barrier and breathed a sigh of relief. Their hearts were still thumping madly like crazy bulls out of control.

Yanni opened the dairy and began to read it.

--

3037 March 1st

The fight has ended, thanks to me. The alpha variant of necrovirus is a success. After Sir Bellum took the virus, his physiology was strengthened greatly. He became the strongest general in this world and won the battle against those silly barbarians.

3037 June 12th

The barbarians lost and they had to give the factory to us.

I cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony of my Grey Factory. A new era of necrology and industry will begin.

Now I am working on a plan to build an ultimate entity called the Cube of Necrus, which will make humans evolve. After that ultimate evolution, humans will not be afraid of illnesses anymore in the future.

3037 July 15th

Although necrology has benefited our society and made our lives far more convenient to various aspects, I can sense that something has gone wrong.

It’s the environment. We’re polluting the earth but it has been too late to stop.

3037 August 2nd

I have forged the prototype of the Cube of Necrus. It’s talking to me but it’s not talking to someone else. It tells me that I am the chosen one so that only I can hear him.

It also says that the world of nature a sacrifice for a greater civilization of evolved humans. In the future, many creatures will go extinct but humans will thrive and prosper.

Viva the ultimate evolution.

3038 January 8th

Dwarves begin to attack us. They thought that the earth would be ruined by us humans and they want to stop us.

Those filthy creatures have to be cleansed away. We will wage a battle towards them.

Sir Bellum has done well in the war against barbarians and I won’t get him overqualified to fight those dirty dwarves. Therefore, Doctor Plague will be responsible for cleansing the dwarves with his plague viruses.

Let those f**king dwarves go extinct!

3038 February 4th

The barbarians will be obedient if I treat them well with dignity.

I can make them work by paying them only a small amount of money.

Look how silly they’re!

3038 March 1st

The Cube of Necrus is right.

Dwarves must be cleansed since they keep trying to stop the development of my revolution of industry. I will make them go extinct.

At first, I need to write some stories about dwarves to demonize them.

--

“So that’s the truth. Dwarves are not monsters. On the contrary, we humans are…” muttered Yanni.

Now they had known everything. Master Mortis was a psychopath.

He wanted to sacrifice the earth and other creatures on earth to bring that so-called ultimate evolution to humans. He also wanted to massacre the dwarves. He needed to be stopped.

There was something wrong with the Cube of Necrus too. It was definitely something obscene and evil.

II

“Where’s the secret dungeon that you found?” asked Floria.

“Well … I’ll show you two the way,” replied Starsha.

She then guided the siblings all the way to the corridor where she found that secret mini dungeon. She pushed one of the pictures and it was opened as a door.

The three then climbed into that mini dungeon in an attempt to save that innocent imprisoned dwarf out of this hell on earth.

Inside the mini dungeon it was murky and silent. To their surprise, the whole dungeon room was filled with some sort of smell of rotting corpses and inside the cage sat that dwarf, his skin had somehow decayed but his eyes was still opened. The colour of his skin had been somehow desaturated and turned grey, on the surface of which, the black crimson veins were highly visible.

There were no possible signs of life on his face at all, but he seemed to be breathing with some disgusting rotten smell coming out of his mouth, which filled the air in the whole room, making it smell like a morgue.

The whole room was dark and freezingly cold. The dwarf seemed to be the origin of all those coldness and murkiness. There were something unholy inside him which corrupted his skin and body, making him look like a living dead as though he were standing at the boundary between life and death.

It was hard to judge if he was still alive, until he opened his mouth and spoke.

“It’s you … You’re back. Have you found Master Mortis’ work log?” muttered the dwarf weakly, his voice trembling in extreme pain.

“Yes, I have …” murmured Starsha. Scared by this horrible scene in front of her, her eyes widened in fear.

“Since that, you shall have found the truth,” groaned the dwarf.

“What has happened to you?” asked Starsha, her right hand covering her mouth and her whole body was trembling in fear as well as sympathy.

“Doctor Plague tested his new type of plague on me. He wants to use the new plague he makes to massacre us dwarves. If we dwarves were killed, no one would be strong enough to stop them anymore. It’s a simple theory,” explained the dwarf in lifeless voice.

“Doctor Plague? Who is Doctor Plague?” questioned Floria. She had never heard about this name.

“He is a deputy of Master Mortis. Doctor Plague kills us dwarves by plagues and viruses. He is enthusiastic in necrology and virology. I have been infected with the plague he just tested on me and I am dying now,” sighed the dwarf.

“I’m late. I could have trusted you and saved you out of here,” apologized Starsha. She lowered her head with guilty.

“It’s not your fault, girl. No one can survive the brainwashing process of Master Mortis, after all, those thoughts have been planted deep inside you. However, you’ve gotten rid of his mind control now and … I have a dying wish,” drawled the dwarf with a weak grin.

“Just tell me. I will help you fulfil it,” promised Starsha.

“I want to tell my brother that I love him. His name is Thorne and he lives in Titan Forge city now. We had a quarrel three years ago and I haven’t met him even once since that. I am so regretful,” whispered the dwarf softly.

“Rest in peace, dwarf … We will find your brother and tell him what you feels about him,” Floria reassured him.

“Thank you, girl …” the dwarf closed his eyes and he would never wake up ever again.

The three left this mini dungeon. They knew what they were going to do now.

They must destroy the Cube of Necrus.

III

“So this is the Cube of Necrus. It looks spooky,” murmured Starsha, her eyes fixed on that black eerie cube.

“Yes …” Yanni nodded.

“How to destroy this cube? Can hearth fire melt it?” inquired Floria.

“No. It’s impossible. The temperature of hearth fire isn’t high enough,” answered Yanni.

“Maybe Aislina knows how to get rid of this cube. She possesses some magical power, right? Perhaps her magic is strong enough to destroy it,” Starsha pointed out.

“You’re right, Starsha. Anyway, let’s leave here. It’s not a place to dawdle,” suggested Floria.

Just as they were about to leave this creepy furnace workshop, someone called to them.

“What are you three doing here?” It’s a low gravelly voice. Then a man wrapped in black knight armour came into this room.

He was a tall man, approximately 1.9 meters tall and the plate armours he wore seemed to be made of some kind of black metal, perhaps necrite. He also wore a helmet with a mask which covered his full face with only two holes for his eyes, which were giving off faint blue light as if they were luminous somehow.

Held by his right hand was a black mace with the logo of the Grey Factory carved on it.

“Who are you?” demanded Yanni with the Cube of Necrus held tightly in his sweating hands.

“I am Sir Bellum, the general of the Normanian Army. I once leaded the Normanian Army to win the war against you barbarians. Now I have retired from the battlefield and been assigned here to protect the Cube of Necrus,” the man answered and commanded, “Put the cube back where it belongs, or you won’t leave this room alive, barbarian boy!”

“Run!” exclaimed Yanni.

At their fastest speed, they commenced to run towards the exit of this furnace workshop. However, although wrapped in heavy-plate armour, this Sir Bellum was still agile. He swiftly blocked the way of them and knocked them to the ground with his invincible mace.

Yanni was lying on the ground painfully, and so were Floria and Starsha. Yanni had pretty hard muscles due to his experience of working as a smith, therefore, he could withstand one blow of Sir Bellum, but the girls couldn’t, both Starsha and his sister seemed to have lost their consciousness and fainted.

Though still being conscious, Yanni felt extremely painful. His whole body was burning and he could feel that several bones of his had been broken because of Sir Bellum’s attack.

“You have really irritated me, and now I want to kill you. In fact, you’re always useless to us. I know that you’re the smith who helped us to forge the Cube of Necrus. However, we chose you to do this job because you were cheap to employ, so Master Mortis won’t blame me for taking your life, because he always respects my decision,” smirked Sir Bellum.

“You can’t kill me. According to the law, you cannot murder a person or you’ll be sentenced to death,” groaned Yanni.

“Laws? That’s hilarious! I am the general of Normanian Army and my military successes in the war against northern barbarians are invaluable! For sure I can ignore the law!” laughed Sir Bellum wickedly.

He walked towards Yanni in an attempt to take his life.

Just at this moment, the ground began to shake crazily as though an earthquake were happening. A chasm then appeared on the ground, out of which rose countless vines. Standing at the centre of the vines was Aislina, the last elf. Her sapphire eyes were filled with wrath as well as determination.

“Stop, man!” exclaimed Aislina.

“Who the hell are you?” demanded Sir Bellum, seemingly confused by the Aislina’s fantastic-style grand entrance.

“I am Aislina from Dream Forest and I am an elf. Those three lying on the ground are my friends. I am taking them away and if you dare to stop me, my magic will tear you into pieces,” warned Aislina.

“Magic? Ridiculous! Magic doesn’t exist in this world at all. The only miracle in this world is necrology. Because of the necrovirus inside my body, I am more powerful than any other warriors in history! I am nearly invincible!” bragged Sir Bellum.

“No, magic exists, and soon you will know its power,” retorted Aislina, with a confident smile curving her lips.

“Aislina … be careful …” whispered Yanni, moaning.

“I will be careful, Yanni,” promised Aislina. As soon as her voice broke off, Yanni closed his eyes and fainted into coma.

Aislina held her right hand out with some balls of green lights dancing among her fingers. With a simply gesture, some vines grew quickly from under Sir Bellum’s feet and wound themselves round his body.

Entangled by the vines, Sir Bellum began to struggle and curse.

“You humans have been polluting the Dream Forest for over decades. Trees are dying and flowers are withering. One day, you will pay the cost for what you have done to this world,” warned Aislina, her hands manipulating the vines remotely in an attempt to squash his armour.

“No, we won’t be punished. We will conquer the world. Nothing can stop us. Nothing can stop the civilization, not even magic. You said that you were an elf, didn’t you?” questioned Sir Bellum.

Aislina didn’t say anything.

“Where’re other elves? Why do you come here alone? I know, girl … You must be the last elf in this world, and definitely, the era of your kind has ended and the era of humans will rise,” Sir Bellum continued, “today, I will end your pathetic and hopeless life, helping you to rest in peace.. You will die quietly and soon you will be forgotten by history. No one will even remember that you have once existed in this world as the last elf …”

Sir Bellum began to contract his muscles with force and the vines that entangled him began to rupture. Finally, he broke free from Aislina’s vines successfully and began to charge ragingly towards Aislina.

Aislina opened her hands, out of which, thousands of sharp green leaves appeared, shot towards Sir Bellum like darts, however, wielding his unbreakable mace, Sir Bellum blocked all the leaves that Aislina used to attack him.

Running out of tricks, Aislina had no choice but to use her last skill. She snapped her fingers and some flowers commenced to grow on the vines under her feet. With another finger snap, some pollens flew out of the anthers of the flowers and they assembled into a fog which blocked the view of Sir Bellum.

Sir Bellum stopped charging. He stayed put, preparing for the upcoming attack of Aislina, which could possibly be from anywhere. However, Aislina didn’t attack at all. In fact, she didn’t intend to attack at all.

When the fog made of pollens lifted, Aislina had already disappeared, and so had Yanni, Floria and Starsha. The Cube of Necrus was gone too, taken away by Aislina. Sir Bellum lost and Aislina won.