Tales of Tuurkalumys

[Hazen Gregory]

Merr.

For countless millenia it had been a place that had seemingly vanished into the deep blue of the oceans and never had been seen again. It had now been only a short 13 days since the earthquake that had changed the face of the world, causing an oddity that had caused Merr to resurface, or rather partially resurface so that the other continents could have access to it. Where Zero Ark floated more than 20,000 feet in the sky, held up by an unknown force, Merr was located at the edges of where Zero Ark would be if it wasn't in the sky. Scientists and those whom manipulated magic and worshiped Gods all had varying theories to the meaning of this but nothing solid had been proven, so speculations were all that was available.

Corbinek Zelkonis; Leader of Zero Ark had quite a bit of work set out for him. He'd been recently bombarded by requests to start exploration and possible invasion of Merr. The uproar of different opinions from the high council about how to go about this was an issue that Corbinek felt bad about. He'd decided to take some time off from his duties as Continental leader and leave the fate of the continent he'd been maintaining for hundreds of years to his lover(also of more than a hundred years) Uron Zeal. Within a week of Merr arising from the murky depths, Corbinek's stress level had increased dramatically. There were far too many problems with that place, most forms of technology from the other continents didn't work once entering the valley which led into Merr. What was worse, there was a rush of idiots and geniuses alike wanting to go to Merr to explore its supposed long lost secrets. Drama and violence were becoming more and more common on the streets in a lot of places, though at the moment only Zero Ark was the place that Corbinek really had to worry about, and that was definitely saying quite a bit in the light of things. He probably should have been enjoying the start of his little vacation of sorts, but his responsibility for zero Ark and all that his job as leader entailed laid heavy on his mind.

“Oh man. This is just too much, I gotta get out of here. I remember the time right after the war ended when there was so much to do and I wasn't worrying about a calamity happening right beyond my doorstep.” This was kind of pointless to say aloud, especially since Corbinek had yet to leave Cubia Beta, but it was still insinuated due to the fact that his duties for the time being were already within Uron's hands. "I'll just go visit the lagoon, I always feel at peace there."

Across the way, all Corbinek could see the expanse of Cubia Beta in all of its artificial glory. The place was beautiful and Corbinek had grown accustomed to the lights during the night, but he was in a thoughtful mood, he decided to leave after bidding Uron a sweet goodbye, Corbinek took to the skies and flew off through the night toward Transit Lagoon....

~~~~~

It had only been about 20 hours, and already Corbinek felt like going back to the Icon Tower. He knew that everything was going fine but already he was feeling heartsick, and missed Uron. Time spent away from his husband made Corbinek's heart ache a lot more than he'd expected it to. Corbinek always knew that over the years they had been together that the connection between them was strong, but he never realized how strong it was until the moment his heart felt as if it was empty. “I am almost amused with myself. I’m supposed to be this strong leader, and I am away from my love for a day, and now look at me.” Corbinek sat and felt the area around him. The wilderness was very soothing, the feeling and flow of nature in this place was able to cause a serenity within Corbinek like no other place he'd been to on the planet but something didn’t seem right. It was almost as if the fabric of nature had been poisoned. "What is going on here?? The beauty of this place has been disturbed a great deal. Uron what would say if you saw this?? I know this is our favorite place to be together, such sorrow that this strange mist now flows through this wildlife.”

Corbinek sighed, and crouched on the ground, at the edge of a murky lake as the water frothed and a set of antennae emerged. Corbinek laughed as the small creature came all the way out. It was a Snurdle, one of the most adorable swamp creatures ever. They were very carefree, and this one looked like it was ever more carefree than most. For a few moments the creature stayed on the edge of the swampy waters with its eyes closed. It didn’t notice Corbinek at first, and its furred little body, surprisingly not dirty, or wet walked slowly around, and looked up, finally looking at Corbinek, and blinking innocently. “How cute, I really love these lil guys.” The Snurdle heard what he said, and chittered, running closer to Corbinek, and jumped onto his lap. He petted the animal and then looked down to see an entire pack of the animals around the lake watching.

“CHEEED…….CHEEED!!!” The snurdles were excited. It must have been a while since they had a visitor, and these animals always loved company. It was getting dark in this part of the world, and through the mist, Cobinek could make out a patch of stars. It was quite the sight.

 

[Argenteus]

Karul smiled to himself. He sat in an open field of the flat, glossy, leafen grass that was known as Mara. The grass was real, but the sky above him was simulated using the most complex holographic technology available.

He felt the grass below him, and knew (Almost as well as he knew he felt the grass) that it felt him. And through the grass, he felt him. It was an odd phenomena, or would be to anyone else, but he had grown quite used to it.

He sipped at his drink, a fruit tea made of Bignay fruit and with several herbs in there along with simple green tea. It contained a large dosage of dissolved Q-metal which he'd been drinking for 68 years. It was slowly replacing the Iron in his blood, and increasing his ability to work with essence.

Upon finishing his tea, Karul dismissed the illusion of the sky, and his furniture and such reappeared on the grass. He stepped outside the room onto his balcony and overlooked Nahtz. He could feel the tension in the ground below him, the movement of the air and the sky. Insects and small animals moved about on their daily business of surviving. The dim consciousness of the bacteria and other microorganisms didn't so much have the flair of a greater organism, but as a whole it made a noticeable mass. He floated into the air a bit, and many citizens below in the surrounding city were watching him.

Karul decided to amuse the public as well as himself. The clouds above him darkened on his command, and thunder crackled in the sky. A tornado touched down around him, but he kept it from tearing him apart. Lightning crackled between his skin and the sky, but he kept most of the heat and electricity constrained to the swirling air.

Now most of the population of the city was watching. He saw, just barely, a man picking pockets while the people were distracted. Karul sent a bolt of lightning from the sky which struck the man down. The people around him looked away to see the man. They were at first shocked, but then one saw one of his possessions in the thief's hand and they understood.

The man - who some of the people regarded, falsely, as a god - lowered himself back onto his balcony. Today was the day when he would visit Merr, recently risen from the sea. Somewhat perplexing, he hadn't seen the rise of the earth coming. He'd felt quite strongly when it had happened, but it had been sudden and unpredictable.

He understood that the leader of Zero Ark had intended to visit the continent. Unsurprising, but it didn't concern Karul. He was no great friend of Corbinek, but as leaders of their respective continents they had dealings in the past. Merr was a big place, and even if they did come in contact nothing would go down.

---

Limakasauya was in bed with her boyfriend Jinn Minra. They had been going at it moments ago, and had just finished after about an hour of great sex. She smiled absent-mindedly, thoroughly worn out. Today they had gone mostly with vanilla sex, no whips chains or other 'toys'. She drifted into to sleep, a stupid smile on her face.

About an hour later, Lima woke up. Jinn was deep asleep and she decided not to wake him. She dressed herself, first placing her hidden knives and then sliding on her dress. Feeling like it, she drew a needle out of a cupboard and injected a dosage of heroin, followed with a smaller dosage of meth. She sat for a few hours smiling before it finally wore off. She finished by popping a few tablets of a prescription painkiller and set outside.

She grabbed her cane, walked outside and looked around. She smiled at the nice day, and drifted into a back alley of Cubia Beta. First an unwise man attempted to rob her, but she instantly killed him, empowering her Cane and swinging it into his head. It cut right through him as if it were only air, and a bloody mess was left on the ground.

A few minutes later she got what she was looking for. A man pinned her to the ground and raped her. Quite fun, in Lima's mind, though any other woman would surely have been traumatized. When she (and he) were finished and the rapist had left, she got up and masturbated for a while. Then she got back up and went out for dinner.

---

Jinn awoke and found Lima gone. He didn't resent her for it, it was a common occurrence. He found she had done a bit of heroin, meth and Qimbene. Drugs were really Lima's thing, but he did crush a few capsules of the painkiller Qimbene and smoke it.

Jinn went outside for his current objective. He had mostly abandoned his missionary work over recent years, but he was still an active mercenary. He was hired to kill a rich Mam businessman by the name of Xi-Xi-Sundo'Shun. The Mam were notoriously paranoid, but it was nothing new for him.

He tracked the man and watched him exit his skyscraper from a distance. He entered his sky-car and set off, but Jinn followed him through the sky, redirecting gravitational force to lift him through the air. He always found flight to be exhilarating, and now the thrill of the hunt was adding to that. In a moment, the car found it had failed to work. He had created a current of electricity forcing the power from the car's battery into a loop and denying power to the rest of the car.

As it fell, Jinn dove toward the car and fell along with it. A few shots from an energy pistol welcomed him, but he forced the door open. He moved his fist as if to strike with it, but instead of actually striking his target with the fist he instead sent what was like the stab of a blade toward him with gravitational force. The man was - as far as he could feel - being impaled with a long blade. In reality it was merely gravitational force. Blue light took the shape of a blade however, marking his usage of Essence.

Jinn backflipped out of the falling sky-car, allowing himself to fall most of the way to the ground but slowing his descent near the end and landing unharmed on his feet.

The Umbran smiled. Nothing like a job well done to life the spirit. He called into the man who hired him and assured him that his competitor would no longer be an issue. Jinn walked off to the bar for a drink.

 

[Ðari]

A massive gasp of air was taken in, and then released...

❝AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!❞

Such an intensive screech of the tongue that rolled along, blasting at the floating spectre above. This soul was Dark Cry, emancipating himself from Svether's child body and inciting his bloodlust unto the nearest soul. Unable to satiate himself during his thirty-minute counter, this was all that he could do. Wolf became the object into which this uncontrollable wrath was unleashed into. With a grimace, the shriek crippled into an icy blast issued upward towards the hovering ruler, Wermacht.

"YES FATHER. This is what madness craves, to be challenged by exceptional resisting inertia. Something immovable, to press the strain of a true power struggle!"

Wermacht just appeared very calm, giving a brief exhale as his right arm bearing his hitsun transmuted into a gigantic metallic device, that opened into a disc-like apparatus funneling in the screech of his wail, siezing it into a captured sphere, that he held suspended just from below the extended mechanism. A chain was then attached to this ball containing Dark Cry's icy scream, freezing the exterior of it, Wermacht ejected the ball and swung it freely like a gigantic Ice-Mace.

"Hey now, ruthless killing intent isn't how we do things you know." He said smiling, as the mace hovered around, locked onto Dark Cry's residual signature.

The City of Omice eyes looked on with great approval, this upheaval of Dark Cry quickly became a spectacle. Truely menacing, the madness however was being contained into the high altitude and nonetheless, this was simultaneously Wolf's doing.