Runes and Ruins

Runes and Ruins

Soluna City, MechQuest Galaxy. Year 2985 PR (Prior to Reset).

Bzzt. Chink. Whirr.

The sounds of power tools and engineering could be heard behind the doors of many buildings in Soluna City, where technology survives best. The MechQuest Galaxy was a world of technology, filled to the brim with mechanical gargantuans and mechanics of these giants. The mechanical giants’ names? They are referred to as “mecha”, or alternatively, “mechs”.

Drakylon sighed as he walked through the streets of the city. He was used to the sound of power tools, but he sighed for a different reason. He had received a C-Mail from Echris, stating an order for him to report to the RuneHawk house room; his house’s room. He didn’t exactly enjoy most of the missions GEARS put him through.

As he entered GEARS University, he made a beeline towards the elevator. As usual, it was quite empty, as most of the students were either attending classes or out doing other things. He had already graduated from GEARS, yet he stayed to be the co-leader of the RuneHawk house with Echris.

As Drakylon entered the RuneHawk room, Echris looked up and greeted him with a smile.

“Ah, there you are, Drakylon. I know you don’t like most of the missions we put you through, but I’m sure you’ll like this one. Have you heard of the Runxis Ruins?” Echris said.

Drakylon perked up at the sound of “Runxis Ruins”. He had heard of the place, so he nodded. “Yes, I’ve heard of those ruins. Aren’t they in some faraway planet?”

“Ah, yes. The Ruins are on the planet of Belaris 7, in the Graldor System. It’s actually not that far away with the new hyperdrive system. It’ll take, oh, a few hours to get there with your starship. Your mecha’s already in the hangar.”

“Alright then, I’ll be going,” Drakylon grumbled, exiting and walking over to the starship launching site. As usual, his starship was sitting there. It seemed the same, but it didn’t feel right to Drakylon as he entered. Something was different…

“Hey, is the hyperdrive installed yet?” He called down to the engineers.

“Ah, the HyperDrive System V2.2 has been installed. It’s been tested, and the test results were… good,” an engineer called back.

That didn’t sound good… Drakylon thought as he sat down in the pilot’s seat and strapped in. Within seconds, he was into space and beyond.

Checking his Spacial Positioning System (SPS), he found the planet, Belaris 7 and set a course to the planet. Doing some research on the way, he found that it was in fact semi-habitable to humans, though there was more oxygen than carbon dioxide in the planet’s air. He tried to track down the Runxis Ruins, but realized that part of the planet was actually unknown potential wilderness. That isn’t good… Drakylon thought as the hyperdrive kicked into effect. One moment, he was looking out to a nice, leisurely ride through space. The next moment, he was looking at a dizzying blur.

While Drakylon waited for Belaris 7 to come into sight, he did some more research on the planet. It seemed like half the planet was made of a strange mineral called Belarium, whereas the core of the planet was made of compacted carbon, nearly to the point of crystallization.

A few hours passed, and Drakylon caught sight of the Graldor System. He switched the hyperdrive off and switched to manual navigation. Within seconds, he was staring at the face of Belaris 7. Landing at a small research city, he took out his mecha and started to traverse into the unknown.

Several hours later, Drakylon arrived at the Runxis Ruins. He had fought some strange creatures such as a hundred-armed giant, a cross between a centaur and a minotaur and even a few giant satyres. This seems like a mythical land. I saw quite a few of these creatures in some ancient myths, he thought as he navigated the ruins.

Three horned rabbit-like creatures, seven animated weapons, five living cyclones and two rock golems later, Drakylon arrived at the heart of the ruins. A few runic guardians were in the way. One fired a spell-dart at Drakylon, and he was forced to dodge (which wasn’t very easy in a thousand-ton mechanical behemoth). Muttering something about the disappearance of magic, he shot down two guardians with a few bullets. Three remained, though they were no match for a searing energetic blade equipped to a mechanical behemoth. Drakylon noticed a lump of rock and metal with an opening that was too large for his mecha. Praying that nothing would sabotage his mecha, he climbed out and entered the heart of the ruins with a trusty energy blade.

Within the heart was a sphere and a cube. Upon further inspection, he realized that the sphere was actually a prism with very small faces that make it seem like a sphere. He tried to snatch both out, but he was met with a shock to his hands. Stumbling back, surprised, he tried again, only to be met with the same shock. Shaking his head, he tried slashing at the prisms, but there was no resistance. He tried throwing a rock at the prisms, and the rock rebounded against an invisible barrier. Ah, an invisible barrier that only affects physical objects. I have an idea…

Ten minutes later, he was holding the energy blade within the barrier and reaching towards the prisms. As he had expected, he was able to snatch the cube out of the barrier. Unfortunately, the barrier overpowered the energy blade just as he was reaching towards the sphere, and was met by a nasty shock. Yelping in surprise, he stumbled back. The ground shook once, twice, thrice. A runic guardian was now blocking the exit, and Drakylon was forced to fight it.

The guardian spewed a barrage of spells in every direction. Drakylon had been born before the start of the Era of Mechas, so he had some skill in dodging spells and missiles without the help of mechanical shields and the such. Gaining ground, he tried to stab the guardian, but his energy blade was met with resistance; an absorption spell. Drakylon was hurled back into the far wall of the ruins by a force. Cursing, he got up and noticed a stick by his side. No, not an ordinary stick. He recognized the stick as an arcane weapon, so he picked it up. As he came into contact with the staff, something glowed within his coat pocket. He threw his useless energy blade hilt aside and took the cube out of his pocket.

Knowledge flooded his mind; ancient times, the Ancient Era, when magic still existed. A single message rang in his ears.

“Save us!”

Drakylon knew that he had a special mission to complete, though he didn’t know what. Raising the staff, he fired a special sequence of spells at the guardian, to deactivate it. Sure enough, the guardian stepped aside and turned off, deactivated by the sequence of spells. Climbing out of the ruins, he returned to his mecha. Within an hour, he was back in space with the hyperdrive activated.

Back at Soluna City, a day had passed. Drakylon made a beeline to the RuneHawk door again, this time brandishing a staff instead of an energy blade. He also had the cube in one hand, and the prism in another. As he entered the RuneHawk room, Echris looked up and seemed very surprised.

“Drakylon! It seems that you were successful at getting to the ruins. Say, what are these items?” Echris exclaimed. Drakylon handed the cube over, and Echris studied the cube.

“I haven’t seen anything like this before. How about we name it after you… Let’s see, how about the Drakylon Cube?” Echridas said after close inspection. “Can we place it on display in the RuneHawk room?”

“Sure, why not? To both questions, that is,” Drakylon replied. “However, can I have permission to keep the remaining items?”

“Ah, yes, of course. I’ll just put this over here…” Echridas scurried over to the other end of the room, placing the Cube over an outcrop of rocks. Drakylon excused himself and rode the elevator back down to the first floor.

He went back to his starship, and launched it back into space. No further news came from him since he embarked upon this voyage…