123 SOURCE OF THE UNKNOWN
"I don't know," Damen said, tightening his fists. "Your mother's ghost… no…her will brought us here. We'll find out."
Eryn didn't disagree.
They descended.
The temple was carved from a single vein of black crystal. Its walls pulsed faintly, humming in response to Damen's presence. Faint glyphs glowed—alien symbols and hieroglyphs of humanoid forms merging with rivers of light, dissolving and reforming endlessly.
"The walls are telling a story", Eryn speculated.
Damen couldn't understand the alien language, so he didn't comment on them.
Then they moved on.
At the heart of the chamber lay a vast circular well, filled with liquid starlight. The air around it shimmered, distorting reality like heat over metal.
"It's beautiful," Eryn whispered.
"The Well?" Damen thought. "This is the bloody Ruins of the Well from Zalira's map."
Eryn approached first, tracing a glowing sigil. "Mother came here before. These markings—they match her notes."
Damen looked into the well.
Suddenly, visions struck him—Zalira kneeling before this same pool, her body breaking apart into light, reassembling, then unraveling again.
He could feel her pain, transcendence, and despair. This wasn't an illusion—it was memory. Zalira's.
"Why am I seeing this?" Damen gasped.
"Is it because Zalira's Core is inside me? Or Zalira's Ghost is bringing me to the source that helped her transform from her alien form," Damen thought.
Although he knew Zalira managed to control her Blue Blood lust with the infusion of Core of Blue Blood…. One mystery still remained- Zalira could transform from human form into Annunakin Deacon at will.
Damen reached out towards the Well.
The instant his fingers brushed the surface, a surge of power flooded his body. His veins blazed blue, the metallic scales on his skin glowing white-hot. For one perfect moment, his flesh turned human again.
"Is this Zalira's secret of transforming back into a human?" he thought.
Then the reflection shifted.
In the glowing water, his face twisted—another version of himself staring back, warped and grinning.
"The more you suppress me," it whispered, "the stronger I become."
Damen staggered. "You… you're the alien inside me?"
The reflection smiled, a dark, warped mirror. "Come… into the abyss with me," it whispered.
Then Damen realized it. This was what he would have become if he succumbed to the blue blood curse and became a deacon of the alien god.
Damen's mind screamed against the pull.
His hands clawed at the edges of his consciousness, struggling not to be dragged into the Well. The force was almost overwhelming—until a glint caught his eye deep within the starlit liquid.
He focused. His Vision Connect activated. A glyph appeared over the light.
Name: Source of the Unknown
Description: A source of unknown origin. Used by deities and half-gods before ascension. Grants the power to walk among humans.
There was no time to think. He activated Assimilate.
The Well's source surged into him, cascading through his veins like liquid fire.
Then the alien's grip inside the well faltered.
Eryn screamed as blue energy ripped from his body, the Well thrumming violently around them. Damen wrenched his hand free, but his flesh charred black, his veins glowing like molten wire.
Then after a while, his body was slowly returning to normal.
"Did the well cure your curse?" Eryn asked.
"It… it can't be cured," Damen gasped. "The cursed blood… it's still alive in me."
Damen understood now- the cursed blood was within him now and couldn't be cured. The curse has gained a consciousness that could take over him at any time unless it was suppressed.
Suddenly, Eryn hugged him.
"What is the matter?" he asked her.
"The Well… I've seen the other side", Eryn said to his surprise.
"What did you see?" Damen asked her.
"There is another me in there… one that I will eventually become", she replied in an eerie manner.
Something wasn't right with Eryn after visiting the Ruins of the Well but Damen had no time now…. The temple shuddered violently.
Cracks spidered up the black crystal walls, pouring torrents of blue light.
"Run!" Damen shouted.
Together they tore through collapsing corridors, shards of crystal raining like deadly rain on them. Behind them, the Well erupted, a geyser of pure blue flame blasting into the night sky, devouring the dunes around it.
The Well of the Unknown was gone.
When the desert finally fell silent, only a vast crater remained, edges glowing faintly like the dying breath of a star.
----
By dawn, Eryn slept again, curled beneath the ruins of an old crawler vehicle. Damen sat beside her, his eyes fixed on the horizon where the twin suns climbed slowly, burning the desert gold.
He did not ask her again about her experience with the Well of the Unknown… and neither did she bring the matter up again.
So, Damen left it at that.
Suddenly, his burned hand no longer throbbed. Veins of crystalline metal had etched themselves across his scaled skin, forming intricate patterns like—living armor fused with flesh.
"Zalira," he murmured to the wind, "I think I understand now. To control the cursed blood… I must become what it fears. I must evolve into something it can't bully."
Eryn stirred, blinking up at him, her eyes still rimmed red from tears.
"Where do we go now?" she asked.
"East," Damen said. "Toward the storm. Beyond that… Fortress Myrone."
As they stepped into the burning dawn, his armor shimmered again—not blue, but deep silver, alive and shifting like liquid metal.
-----
On the horizon, a wall of dust and lightning rose like a living, breathing storm.
Damen recalled the briefings at Fortress Myrone: these anomalies were rare but deadly—cyclones that never ceased, lightning that could strip flesh from bone, magnetic fields that warped reality.
No one survived crossing them.
Soldiers always avoided the storms.
"We can't go in there," Eryn said, shielding her eyes from jagged plasma arcs. "It's suicide. Let's wait it out."
"That's the only way back to Fortress Myrone, and this storm could last for months," Damen replied, his voice low and tense.
Eryn's hands clenched. "We'll die if we force our way through. I lost Mother—I won't lose you too."
Damen hesitated. "I promised to protect her", he thought.
Finally, he gave in. They would ride out the storm.
Then, impossibly, the storm moved toward them.
"What the hell? Why is the bloody storm chasing us?" Damen shouted.
Gray skies tore apart with jagged bolts of plasma. Sand melted into molten glass where the lightning struck. The air vibrated, thick with ozone.
Eryn's protective gear flickered under the assault, wristband alarms screaming radiation spikes. Damen wrapped himself around her, shielding her from the storm's wrath.
Each bolt of lightning struck him and was absorbed, converted into raw energy. His silver veins blackened, molten currents running across his body.
Eryn stared, half awe, half terrified. "Your skin… it's feeding on the storm."
"What?" Damen replied perplexed.
Then the ground erupted.
A shape tore from the sand and lightning—a towering figure shimmering with raw energy appeared.
It was a Storm Wraith.
The Storm Wraith was a serpentine native of the storm, its translucent body crackled with electricity, scales pulsing with blinding light. This was the heart of the storm—the source of the anomalies around Fortress Myrone.
Eryn raised her plasma pistol, her hands trembling, but the Wraith moved faster than she thought. Her shot hissed past it, dissipating into sparks.
Then, in a blinding flash, it struck.
The air split with a deafening crack. Sand vaporized where its translucent claws lashed through, the storm itself roaring in response.
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