The Ruins

The Gamer opened his eyes, and looked out to the landscape now before him. A vast desert stretched out for as far as his eyes could see. Everything was tinted with a reddish-orange light. However, even though the sky above was clear of clouds, John couldn’t see the sun. As such he had no idea what acted as the light source for this place.

He squinted his eyes. It had initially seemed like this world was nothing but hills of sand, but he could make out something in the distance. What it was, though, wasn’t clear. He would need to get closer to tell. John heard Miss Wentworth walk forward from behind him.

"Fascinating, absolutely fascinating." Wentworth bent down to scoop a handful of sand. "Mr. Newman, be so kind as to find any other materials and bring back samples of them. I will take this sand to have it analyzed. Its age, magical concentration, and composition will tell us much about this Kingdom." With those instructions left to him, she stepped back through the portal and returned to her office.

"Alrighty then," John muttered aloud. He glanced around the area. "Guess I'll start by going to that thing and see what it actually is." It was hard to gauge how far away it actually was. And so, he would just have to start walking and see how long it would take.

Half an hour later

After quite a bit of walking, John climbed to the top of a sandy hill and looked down. He was finally near his destination. From where he stood, he could also clearly tell what it was: a half-crumbled ruin of a stone building. Though it seemed like it wouldn't have been anything too impressive even when it had been in good condition.

The structure seemed to have three distinct rooms, each one separated by a long corridor. There was nothing in the middle area in-between all of them, just one large empty space. Lastly, John noted that the whole thing was shaped in a triangle pattern.

"Hmmm. It doesn't seem like anything actually lives here… but you never know for sure." John opened his Inventory. He switched to his armor and cast his scythe. He began to descend down the hill and towards the ruins.

When he reached them, John crouched low and slowly approached the nearest wall. If there was an entrance, it at least wasn't at the side he currently was at. But it wouldn't take him too much effort to spot a part in the rubble that he could climb past to get inside. But first, he wanted to try to get a good look at whatever was inside.

It took him a little bit to find, but he eventually did manage to find a good spot to look through. A hole that went straight through the wall, the size of his fist. John first pressed his ear next to it, to see if he could hear if anything was moving around on the other side. When all was confirmed to be quiet, he then peered into it.

And on the other side, there was nothing. Or at the very least not anything of importance. Little beams of light from all the cracks and holes illuminated the inside. If John looked from an angle, he could see a few details. He was able to make out the long unused, metal sconce that once would have held a torch on the wall. Bits of sand were strewn across the ground.

From how ill-maintained this building was, it was clear now to John that his place had likely been abandoned for a long time. But then the question was: why would Gaia push him to come here? Chances were, he would potentially be able to find his answer somewhere inside.

The Gamer went ahead and grabbed a few chips of rock to put into his pocket. Better that he got it out of the way now for Miss Wentworth than forget later. After that, he began his search for a hole he would actually be able to fit through.

John climbed inside the building, and landed on the stone ground with a thump. He licked his dry lip. In here, at least, it was cool and out of the "sun". He looked around; he was still near the midpoint of the hallway. So, it was a simple choice of left or right for which of two connected rooms he wanted to start with.

"Well, might as well start from the right," he muttered to himself with a shrug. The overall structure wasn't very large, so it only took him a minute's walk to it. There was no door at the end; instead, the hallway simply opened up to the larger room.

And unlike the empty hallway, here there was actually quite a bit for John to take in. Wooden weapon and armor racks lined the walls, their conditions ranged from only covered in dust to fully broken apart. However, there was no sign of the items that they were built to hold. He made sure to collect a piece of wood, and then moved on to the next room.

When he reached the next one, his eyes had to readjust to the sudden increase in light. An open doorway led to the outside, and the outer walls were lined with several windows. They didn’t have glass, nor were they fully open. Instead, each one had a perpendicular set of metal bars. But due to the amount of exposure to the outside, the ground of this room was of course covered with sand. Here there was only one thing: a large stone table surrounded by half a dozen stone seats.

The Gamer wiped some sand off the table. The stone itself actually seemed like it had remained in decent condition. An empty armory, and now some sort of meeting room? Or perhaps it had been the dining area of whoever used to be here. At least that idea would make slightly more sense to also act as the entrance. But the previous room had the capacity for dozens of sets of equipment, way too much if only six people were stationed here.

John shook his head. He was just making assumptions with no real basis. The theories could wait for when he finished his exploration. There was only one more room to go. After that would be when he could leave and return to Wentworth’s office.

However, as he once again walked the next hallway and neared the last room, his hair stood on end. There was something off about this part of the building. John slowly and carefully stepped in. But rather than it being anything hostile, there was instead a strange sight.

Near the wall opposite him, there was a large, cylindrical tube. It was easily almost twice as tall as him. It almost reminded him of a glass tree, with parts of it that extended into the ceiling and floor. Grey liquid filled the entire thing, seemingly still aside from the occasional bubble. However, attached to the front of the object, there was what looked like a control panel. After a careful glance around, John approached it.

There was a set of dials and levers, though there was no indication of what they did. But attached to the side of the panel, there was a single empty syringe. Next to it, there was a thin tube that led directly to the larger, main object. It had a small pinhole directly above the liquid inside. John figured he could safely guess that you were meant to inject something into that hole. However, he had no idea what the controls were meant to do. But while he thought about this, a new notification popped up in front of him.

‘Create a servant? Kingdom management? Enthrall?’ And to top it off, the one at the end of the quest named directly implied there would be more to come. 'Okay, Gaia, but what do you actually expect me to do? Am I really meant to become some kind of king? To continue to absorb demons and grow my power? For what, though, to do it all just for the sake of it, or is there a bigger reason?' But of course, there was no answer from Gaia to any of his questions.

"Fine then," John said. He wanted to say what he was about to declare out loud, so he could also hear it himself. "Wentworth wants to pull me into her grand plan, and you won't give me any answers. I have to hide my powers from the Order and Hell, but also need to interact with both. So fine, I'll absorb demons, I'll build this place up into a 'Kingdom'. I'll do whatever I need to do to not have to rely on the whims of others, and become strong enough to be the one in control. Until one day, every man, demon, monster, or whatever in the Abyss says that John Newman is second only to Gaia herself."

He grabbed the syringe and stabbed it into his forearm. John drew as much of his blood as he could, then injected it into the tube. As it began to travel through it, a pop-up appeared directly above the console.

Welcome to the Homunculus Generator.
Initiating setup…