A moment passed as our physicist read these words.
"Shit."
Purple particles-the very same he saw swimming within the eyes of that arcanist erupted out of the compass, and rushed toward the hand of our physicist.
He swiftly moved his arm away, but it was too late. The purple particles had already permeated through his armor and reached his left hand.
"AAHHGHH" Once more, a searing pain shot through our physicist. Cross looked back, panic creasing his face.
"Hey are you...okay?" he asked, attempting to get a handle on the situation.
Our physicist glared at Cross. "Obviously not..." he grunted through gritted teeth. "Don't stop moving though. We have to get out of here as fast as possible."
"Alright... I'll trust you on this.." Cross nodded slightly, though worry still streaked his face.
A second bout of pain hit our physicist as this exchange ended. A muffled groan sounded from him as the compass itself dissolved into those purple particles and entered his left hand.
As the pain passed over him, our physicist laid in the back of the cart, slumped against crates of Cross's items, soaked in sweat, and with a strange moving tattoo on the back of his left hand. A two dimensional compass, surrounded by fluctuating runes of some type.
[Item Name Unknown]
[Effects:
-Legacy
-Genius
-Curse Of Soulful Binding]
Pain slowly passing over him as he read through the description, our physicist physically felt his mind sharpen and clear up. He let out a sigh of relief and satisfaction as a sense of clarity erupted through his body.
[Malum is unhappy]
Our physicist looked at the message, frowning. A flash of purple passed through his eyes. Thoughts started to flow like a river, passing over and through him at the same time.
"Hey." Interrupted cross lightly. "While you were writhing back there, I got us out of the city. Care to explain yourself?"
Wordlessly our physicist nodded, and in one fluid action, he took the helmet of his head, letting his ragged hair fall to his shoulders, and placing a battered pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"You..." murmured Cross in shock. "What are you...?"
A slight smile appeared on our physicist's face and pride shone in his eyes. "I am...'human'"
A simple question but an answer full of meaning.
Cross looked deeply into our physicist's shining eyes, and ran his hand through his own graying hair.
"Well?" asked our physicist. "What do you think?"
Cross sighed and chuckled before answering. "I knew you were different from us but this...this is something else entirely..."
Our physicist smiled. He knew he had chosen the right person to reveal himself to-someone who's only passion in life was self advancement-someone whose greed outweighed reality itself. That was what Cross was like. A desperate man-a greedy man who wanted all that he could get.
Our physicist knew that Cross would do and accept anything so long as it allowed him to further himself.
"You and I..." started our physicist "We can accomplish truly great things together." His shadowed eyes sparked. He flashed a dangerous grin to Cross. "Will you still work with me?"
A bead of sweat rolled down Cross's cheek as something sparked deep within him. Unending passion, unstoppable greed. They roiled within him. Until...
Cross mirrored our physicist's dangerous grin. "Of course!" He said gruffly.
He truly didn't care who or what it was he had just dealt with-be it god, the devil, or something worse.
"Now where is this base of yours hmm?"
________________________________________________________________________________________________
[???, 63, ???]
[The Ringed Child]
A young child travels through empty lands. Purple particles swim around his ragged figure, slowly being absorbed by him.
He wanders thoughtlessly-aimlessly. Empty eyes sit in a face with neither desire nor objective.
They were the eyes of one tortured and hated by the world.
One who civilization itself rejected.
For miles and miles this young child walks. hours-days pass and there is no change in the child's mannerisms or pace. Slowly, the child's body came to be adorned with various purple fluctuating runes that dug into his skin, sometimes drawing black blood.
He arrives at the foot of a mountain.
He stares up at it, and for the first time in a long while, emotion entered the child's eyes.
Disdain.
Unwillingness.
And a strange, overpowering will.
One of the runes on the child's body swam out of his skin, floating before him and enlarging to the size of an adult human.
The child opened his mouth and a whisper floated out. "Rizo."
The mountain disappeared on the spot.
The child continues to walk, no destination in mind, farther and farther from reality.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
[-12, -150]
[Our dear physicist]
[2 days later]
"We're nearly there!" yelled our physicist from the front of the cart. "We can make it before night strikes!"
A loud whoop sounded from the back of the cart.
Over the two day travel, our physicist and Cross got a lot closer, sharing stories of their childhoods and Cross gushing over our physicist's original world and it's great inventions and advancements.
Cross had gained a heightened sense of respect toward our physicist, looking to him now as the savior of his race rather than a mysterious man who knew too much for his own good.
On the other hand, our physicist started seeing Cross in a new light, a more human light. He saw Cross's faults, joys, and passion and started to recognize his true value and just how well their minds worked together.
A scrambling sound was heard from the back of the cart as Cross made his way to the front.
"Let's see the home of our great savior shall we?" he laughed as he leapt out of the cart.
Our physicist's home laid out before them-a lonely hut in a clearing in the middle of the woods, 3 large multiblock bricked blast furnaces arranged neatly beside it, spewing out a thick black smoke into the skies. behind these blast furnaces was our physicist's water production system, fully fired up and generating hot steam for his machines. In front of the home was a pathway to the magnetite mines.
Cross's eyes widened. "This is..." he started "Underwhelming..? no that's not it. It's not overwhelming either...what a strange little house...." He moved closer to the blast furnaces.
"And these must be those bricked blast furnaces you talked of that produced that material stronger than iron and bronze!" He smiled, deeply joyful at what he saw. "This is great..."