Prologue part 2: A world built on ruins(2).

A faint, fluorescent green light emanated from the small hole the zombie had left after rising, confirming Salvatoris' suspicions. This was no mere tumulus or mass grave on these plains. It was a ruin that had been deliberately hidden here so as not to arouse suspicion, having obviously sealed the death in a collapse of the man who had tried to hastily conceal the underground entrance with earth and various grava.

Salvatoris knelt on the ground, trying to raise the corpse with great concentration. But when the corpse rose without a word, Salvatoris stamped his foot on the ground before coming to a halt, remembering that he was being pursued. Ignoring all principles of safety, he began to dig with the shovel held by his new undead the spot where the breach through the earth his zombie had unwittingly created was to be found. He widened it enough to be able to crawl through, accompanied by his zombies, and then filled in the hole with some rubble and moreaux de terre. He did this in the hope of not being followed by the routny at his heels, counting on the fact that this place would be enough to hide for a few hours.

As he turned his head towards the only light illuminating this small, vilely airy space, a grave-like smell of putrefaction and seclusion assaulted him. He immediately put his arm in front of his nose, observing the few corpses wearing the same clothes as the very first dead man wedged between rubble and earth. They were dimly lit, and stood before an imposing door of bluish concrete, mixed with blackish steel similar to that of the shovel. And yet, despite its age, the door bore no trace of rust, despite the occasional dent or crack that let moisture through, bearing witness to the many unsuccessful attempts to open it. Above this imposing structure was a clumsily affixed neon-green sign indicating an emergency exit, although it was now barely hanging on, and looked as if it might fall at any moment.

Salvatoris methodically tried to raise four of the nine corpses lying there. However, once they were up, he shook his head, powerless as a thought invaded his mind.

[ More failures...I really can't get them to remember...damn! Just fucking useless muscle memory...I should leave the others to more confirmed necromancers or heroes, who can reanimate them and find out what happened in those ruins. We might even learn more about the ancient civilization that way! ]

After sighing and trying to think positively, Salvatoris headed with his troop of undead towards the gate. He quickly ordered the dead wearing white coats or jackets to open it, which they did with ease, as if they remembered exactly what to do. One of them even showed a badge of which there was almost nothing left, in front of a destroyed machine not far from a plaque where indecipherable inscriptions, long since erased, had been written. This did not provoke any change, but it was only afterwards that he manually pushed open the door, whose electronic bolt seemed to have been broken or destroyed by time and lack of maintenance, in addition to the various marks of violence here and there.

However, the skeleton who had just passed his badge turned to face the beings not wearing white clothing. He spoke with difficulty in a language unknown to Salvatoris, although he could understand the thoughts having been broadcast through his magic which he shared with the corpse, allowing him a rough translation.

"Welcome...luxury...conservatio...cryogenics...center..."

Seeing this, Salvatoris gasped, being overwhelmed by a mixed feeling of fear, concern, and joy at seeing one of his creations speak, leaving him howling with excitement.

"Yes! I couldn't get his memory back, but I was close! I could manage it and control it next time when I'm calm, I'm sure! On the other hand... "Cryogenics?"

Salvatoris was filled with wonder at this unfamiliar word as he tilted his head. He then wordlessly let his two warriors pass in front of him, trying to regain his composure and concentration, while leaving two of the four undead he'd just reanimated in front of the door he'd just passed through to alert him to any potential danger. He left his other two puppets inside, before ordering them to close the door for safety. However, as soon as he took a step inside this underground structure, he was confronted by stairs leading downwards, illuminated by the same neon-green exit sign as above, in addition to a few lights that were beginning to dimly illuminate the place thanks to artificial lights attached to the ceiling, reacting to movement. Salvatoris gasped, thinking of an enemy spell as he positioned his four remaining soldiers around him.

It was only after several long seconds that he realized he was in no danger, and decided to take the stairs, keeping two warriors in front of him. However, he still let the mage carrying the routny corpse, and the very first white-jacketed corpse he'd reanimated, follow behind him. A faint smile still stretched Salvatoris's lips at his near-success, mingled with a great fear of the potential ancient dangers this place might hold.

As he began to make his way down the stairs, illuminated by now flashing lights whose function he couldn't even imagine, Salvatoris felt his hands grow clammy as his whole being screamed at him to get away from this sinister place, from which he could feel no magic, but where everything seemed so magical. It resembled some of the descriptions some heroes had made of their home worlds, leaving Salvatoris all the more intrigued despite his fear, as he reached the end of the stairs. He was now facing an empty doorframe, but felt he was treading on something rusty and metallic similar to the door that should have been here. He consequently let his two warriors advance ahead of him, swallowing his saliva with difficulty as he came face to face with an empty room, having as its only distinguishing feature a wall and floor of the same bluish color, a pane of tinted glass next to another door, this time almost intact in appearance, despite the few negligible traces of rust. However, it was ajar, jammed shut by a corpse wearing a futuristic armored uniform, rusted and destroyed, though not enough to discern its primary purpose, to protect its wearer, still partly preserved and almost mummified in the armor itself, though his head was totally decomposed due to the absence of a helmet.

He urged his warriors to open the door, but as no trap was activated, he followed them rather quickly, trying to raise the corpse who only tried to crawl, unable to stand up due to the state of the amure he was wearing. Having no idea of its usefulness, Salvatoris simply went on his way, posting the crawler at the entrance as a potential enemy detector. Once through the door, he came face to face with a destroyed Security Center. Debris was strewn across the floor of the room, which contained just two doors similar to the one he'd just opened. However, he was startled to see that he could see what he had previously thought was a wall on the other side of the tinted glass. He had no idea what this room was for, nor what all the structures surrounding it were, yet he marveled at all these unknown things

He then observed the room more closely, realizing that there was only one other armored corpse in the room, holding a piece of scrap metal that might once have been a weapon. He didn't bother to reanimate it, given the usefulness of the first one, as well as always wanting to leave corpses to necromancers more confirmed than himself.

When Salvatoris turned right to open one of the doors, he found himself facing a small server room, also destroyed, which must once have coordinated the entire security station he'd just bypassed. He quickly flew over the room, not understanding its real purpose. Yet he seemed to be doing his best to memorize every detail of his surroundings, eager to imagine what it was all for.

Salvatoris then moved towards the other door his warriors had already passed through, to find himself facing a large rectangular dining room featuring two large tables surrounded by chairs in an alloy similar to that of the doors, with at its right and left ends a door, a gas stove and a washbasin, in addition to a few cupboards rusted beyond repair, and sometimes even destroyed, falling to ruin on the floor. The room was also flanked by four doors on either side, which Salvatoris and his zombies opened, revealing in the room closest to the entrance the remains of a large destroyed greenhouse, of which all that remained was soil and a few weeds growing in the darkness, in addition to a smell even more nauseating than the structure itself. Another door led to a storage room with various shelves, some of which were still standing, containing destroyed objects so old and in such poor condition that it's impossible to guess what they might have been. The same was true of the floor, filled with this kind of garbage. The other rooms revealed a bathroom, and even a gym with a few mats, rusting weight, plus a treadmill destroyed inside. Strangely, no corpses could be seen in these rooms.

Once all the doors had been explored and left open, Salvatoris himself opened the last door at the far end of the room, which was surrounded by washbasins, displaying a small staircase which he traversed, to find himself facing a corridor with five doors on each side, and one at the far end.

The ten doors on each side led to small rooms with a bed in more or less good condition, a bedside table, a small desk and a small wardrobe, all made of the same strange alloy.

Salvatoris then moved curiously towards the last door he opened, only to find himself face to face with a sort of cryogenic complex where a few frozen human corpses could be seen inside the few capsules. There was also something like a woman with part of her face skinned off, displaying a metal frame, but yet so similar to a human. She also had long pink hair, and her eyes were always open, and pink themselves. She was dressed in a light military uniform, shredded in places to reveal white skin or complex, robotic mechanical parts. However, she was leaning against a strange rectangular machine edged with greyish lines. The sight terrified Salvatoris as his two warriors instinctively rushed past him as he screamed.

"A go- un...un un...A metal golem!!Here?!!!"

He tried to keep calm in the face of the golem's inaction, but approached cautiously behind his warriors, intrigued by the machine having been reactivated which saw its lines light up with a faint light-green light at his shout. Even so, before he got too close, he let his most imposing warrior punch the golem in the head, which didn't make it react, giving Salvatoris the confidence to approach and start touching the machine, trying to discover what it might be, and why it was still working. It was at this precise moment, however, that a faint, bright-pink light passed into the golem's eyes, and it caught Salvatoris's arm, tetanized by fear, not even thinking of ordering his zombies to attack him despite their inactions in the face of the golem's lack of hostility. Instead, he slumped miserably while the golem spoke in a feminine, if largely mechanical, voice that he didn't understand...

"I-IdentifierA-A-Alice...7274...Des-de-destruction of prto-totocoles 852, 903, 783, a-access to subject's memory...Addition of infor...mation forced-in-progress.Vi-vi-vi-vi...sualizationforced-in-progress-launched."

Almost immediately after this, the machine behind the golem began to glow brighter and brighter, as it connected with the golem, and a tiny metal wire stuck itself into Salvatoris' head, before it began to glow with green light, inflicting excruciating pain as he screamed. However, none of his servants reacted, perceiving no hostility or potential danger, leaving their master to scream and suffer as confused knowledge entered his mind. Then he understood what the golem had said and widened his eyes, before struggling with a howl.

"No! Don't touch my memory! AAAAH ! "

Nothing changed despite his cries or attempts to escape. Suddenly, confused images of combat began to flood into his mind. Explosions, gunfights, mountains of human corpses, blood, and devastatingly bloody landscapes, with representations of their gods at their centers, and huge machines fighting them, easily broken by the gods. All this flowed through his mind as if he'd lived it. In an instant, however, the images became clear, and Salvatoris fell to the ground. He was caught by one of his warriors to avoid possible injury, while the golem deactivated again, releasing the machine as Salvatoris lay stiff on the ground, simultaneously with the golem.