Chapter 001 - Efficient and Reliable
He'd seen the night sky more times than he could count. Late night drives were some of the best memories he had. No traffic, cool air. That's why it confused him so greatly to be flying through it faster than he'd ever gone before.
Stars flew by him like streetlights so fast that he'd mistaken them for lines on a road, but there was no road. There was no ground at all. He felt sick, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't resist the force that pulled him through the universe at a speed that made no sense to him.
"I hope the old man is okay…" He could barely hear his own thoughts as the space around him began to bend and warp. His body felt like it was being stretched and warped as he spun helplessly through the vast expanse of strange lights and colours. "Wait… what?"
A strange glowing woman standing among the stars spoke to him. The universe began to spin again. Confusion and pain overwhelmed his mind.
THUD
It felt like his entire existence had just been forced through a compactor and thrown on the ground. The cold ground beneath him was harsh on his skin.
"It worked! The goddess answered our call! At last!"
A dozen voices rang out all around him as he lay there on the cold ground looking up at the ceiling of the cave. The dank smell of the wet cave was penetrated by the harsh smoke of torches and incense which tickled his nose.
"Thank the goddess above, for we shall finally see justice!" One voice cut through the rest, and the cave quieted after a moment passed. The voice belonged to an elderly woman in fine blue robes, adorned with gold and gems. "Please tell us, young hero. What is your name?"
The old lady stared intently at the boy with a wide smile on her face. All other eyes gradually rested on the boy in anticipation.
"Those cultivators have blasphemed the gods for the last time," an onlooker cried out passionately. "Let them rue the day they first borrowed power from dungeons to defile the realm of gods!"
Cheers erupted in agreement among the members of the summoning.
However, the boy lay motionless on the ground, his breathing shallow and his eyes glassy. Though conscious, it was soon clear that something was wrong.
"Perhaps he is fatigued after the journey to our dimension, master," a man with a large moustache spoke respectfully to the old lady. "She did promise to send us the soul of a righteous child. He may need a moment's rest…"
The worry in his voice was thinly veiled. The woman he called master was also beginning to show signs of doubt.
"Surely the goddess wouldn't have failed us… Our sacrifices this time were immeasurable!" Another man's concerned voice rang out. "Somebody try to wake him up. He must be the one. He must!"
"Give him a drink of holy wine, now!" Another man shouted.
Chaos slowly befell the group as they considered the summoning may have ended in failure. A man was about to pour the glowing contents of a small flask into the boy's open mouth when a shrill voice froze the cave.
"Stop! Do not touch him!" The voice belonged to a young girl surrounded by candles near the wall of the cave. "That is not the promised soul, if it can even be called a soul."
The woman known as the master turned in shock to face the girl.
"You dare utter such blasphemy before the sacred child of the goddess of light?" She expressed her disgust despite her own doubts. "To suggest for even a moment that the goddess failed to send us the promised soul…"
The girl drew a deep breath and closed her eyes, raising one hand in the direction of the barely conscious boy.
"The summoning was successful," she spoke slowly, carefully examining the boy. "It was certainly transported here by Nora, the goddess of light, blessed be her name, but that is not a soul as I know them."
The rest of the group began to stare at the boy, some with glowing eyes.
"It's true what she says…" one man declared. "The vessel is intended to contain the soul of the promised human child, but this soul is completely incompatible."
"Don't speak such nonsense!" another man shouted in anger. "This summoning cost unspeakable amounts of magic! All but one of the pixies I procured are completely depleted, to say nothing of the stones…"
He pointed toward the altar used in the summoning ritual where several small cages rested, an eerie cloud and the smell of death around them.
"Silence yourselves! The goddess must have had a reason, and we have one more option…" The master looked somberly around at her colleagues.
"No…" Another elderly lady went pale at the master's words.
"It is the only way," the master replied coldly. "The vessel we created is no longer viable, but it still contains vast stores of energy and a soul touched by the goddess herself. Should one of us sacrifice our own body, we will be able to summon the correct soul."
"It cannot be me, my estate would crumble without…" the man with the moustache pleaded, but his voice fell on deaf ears.
"And my business would dissolve!" another woman complained. "We've done so much to support the church, and yet…"
The rest of the members began to make excuses while the master shook her head in disgust.
"I will lead by example, you weak-hearted fools, so that at least one of you may be inspired to take up my responsibilities." The master closed her eyes and gestured to the boy. "Place him atop the altar at once, and begin the ritual again. We have little time to waste."
Two men dragged the boy by the arms to the altar and tossed him on top of the stinking cages. Now resting on his side, he could finally see more clearly what was going on around him.
The strange old people who spoke of magic were dancing and chanting in a circle around the old lady called the master. Unfamiliar lights flickered all around them that made the boy feel uneasy.
"Hey…!"
An impossibly small voice caught the boy's ear, but he offered no reply.
"Hey, human!" The whispering continued.
Out of the corner of his eye, the boy then took note of a small creature in a cage next to him on the altar. It was no larger than a bird, but it was the shape of a winged child.
"We're both about to die, but you're not in a cage! Do something!" the creature continued to beg, trying not to be heard by any of the people chanting.
"Die…" To the boy's surprise, a dry voice trickled out of his mouth, undetectable to any but the small creature before him. "Don't…"
"So you were awake!" The creature gestured happily up at the boy. "Listen, you need to get up as fast as you can, grab my cage, and run as deep into this cave as you can. Do you understand?"
The boy's eyes lazily turned to observe the creature directly.
"Can't… move…" the boy grumbled as the chanting grew louder in the distance. "Passenger…? No…"
"Listen to me." The creature stomped its foot and pointed at the boy's face. "I'm a pixie, so trust me. You're disoriented from the journey, but your body will move if you tell it to. You just have to get up and move!"
The pixie looked desperately frustrated, turning back frequently to check the progress of the ceremony behind it.
"Move…?" As he mumbled, the boy turned his head and noticed his arm lying limply on his side. At the end of the arm was a hand with five fingers. He stared at it for a while in confusion, but when a fire suddenly erupted in the centre of the circle of people, consuming the elderly lady in the process, his hand twitched in surprise. "I can move…"
"We're running out of time! Come on!" the pixie panicked. "Grab me and run!"
Slowly the boy moved his arm, clumsily knocking over several cages in the process. His legs also began to move as he discovered them. After some fumbling, he managed to place his hand atop the small cage in front of him and grip it tightly.
The ceremony before him was beginning to intensify as the fire enveloped the one called master. Unfamiliar symbols carved into the walls of the caves began to glow, their light burning the boy's eyes more than the light of the strange fire. Suddenly, the young girl near the candle spoke in excitement.
"It's working! The goddess has acquired the soul and awaits its vessel's completion." Her eyes glowed brightly and she began to float above the ground while she spoke. "The goddess has spoken. Complete the ceremony. Hurry!"
The altar on which the boy was clumsily grasping the cage of the last living pixie began to feel unbearably hot.
"Ouch…" the boy mumbled, and he felt the life being drawn out of him by the chanting old people nearby in the form of an evaporating mist.
Still expressionless, he managed to roll off the altar a moment before a loud crash resounded through the cave. The deafening sound was accompanied by a plume of smoke that obscured everyone's vision.
"The sacrifice!" the floating girl's voice thundered as her colleagues coughed and sputtered. "Check the sacrifice!"
"It's gone! The vessel, the blue pixie with it!" a woman shouted as she scrambled around the altar. "They're both gone!"
"All hope is lost…" The floating girl fell to the ground in tears. "May the goddess punish our failures…"
Before the smoke had cleared and the lamenting had ceased, the boy had managed to carry the small pixie in its cage a fair distance deeper into the cave, tripping and stumbling all the way.
"Headlights…" the boy mumbled as he bumped into the wall once again.
"Lights?" the pixie asked. "Sorry, I'm all out of power right now. But I think we made enough turns to lose them. Rest a while."
In the cold, damp, pitch black cave, the boy came to a stop, and fell to his hands and knees, dropping the cage beside him.
"What… am I…?" the boy spoke roughly, frustration evident in his voice for the first time.
"I thought you were one of those human freaks. Are you alright? You sound sick." The pixie was growing increasingly concerned about the chances of it escaping the cave.
"Where are my…" the boy whispered, searching his body for something. "Skin… so soft… bones…"
The pixie wished it could fly away as the boy began to shout.
"Where are my tires?!"
Chapter 002 - No Speed Limits?!
Deep in the maze-like cave, finally safe from those who sought to sacrifice them to some goddess, a little blue light flickered, illuminating the dreary walls of the damp tunnel for moments at a time.
"There we go, I can use a bit of power now," the small blue pixie quietly celebrated. "I'm feeling a little better. I really was moments away from joining the rest of those pixies. It'll take a while to fully recharge though. Hey. Hey, human boy… Hey!"
It struggled to cast a steady beam of light from its hand, faint as it was, then pointed it toward the boy, but he was still unresponsive, curled up on the ground and mumbling to himself about something he'd lost. He had a healthy body, but it looked weak and frail beneath the blue robe in which the vessel had been dressed.
The frustration in its voice gradually turned to pity as the boy whimpered, still unable to fully control his own limbs.
"What's wrong, human boy?" it attempted to ask with some sincerity. "Are you injured?"
After a few moments passed awkwardly, he clumsily sat up and looked at the pixie. He turned his head to observe it, but his head wobbled like an infant as he struggled to control the muscles in his neck.
"I feel… no pain… just cold…" His words were still difficult to understand, but he spoke quicker than before. "My body… strange… human…?"
"Your body seems healthy to me, human boy." The pixie's eyes glowed slightly as she looked at him. "It's very healthy in fact."
"My tires… My engine… Headlights… Where…" he continued, his face contorting painfully in confusion.
"Are those weapons? Were you a warrior in your world?" the pixie asked excitedly. "What's your name, human warrior?"
"Not human… Micro… I'm a Micro," he spoke with a childish frown that made the pixie laugh.
"Okay, Micro," she said, then nodded. "That's a nice name, really. Do you remember what happened before you arrived here?"
Micro looked around the cave as he tried to recall the events which led him there.
"We were driving into town… The old man needed something…" He became quiet after a moment.
"Hey, human!" The pixie waved at him.
"Talk out loud, not in your head!"
"Sorry…" Micro snapped out of his silent state.
"A boy on his phone… walked into the road…"
Micro placed his hands on his head in despair as he recounted the event.
"There was an accident." He cried.
"I think a boy was hit… then another car… then there were strange lights. I tried to stop, but—"
"I'm not sure what you're trying to say." The pixie scratched her head. "So there was an accident with your master? What's a car?"
"After the accident, I was floating." Micro continued slowly.
"A woman, with wings, glowing… She spoke to me."
"You must have met Nora…" The pixie spoke with some disdain. "That magical rascal of a deity has a reputation for failure. And she sent you here?"
"Nora…?" The boy groaned.
"I think so…"
"Magicians are always going on about her being a saviour or something," the pixie scoffed.
"Boring nonsense, but they're getting more annoying now…"
"The old man… Is he okay…?" The boy asked desperately.
"Is he safe? That boy… That boy on the phone…"
"Sorry, kid," the pixie shrugged. "That world is far behind you now. Whatever you were over there, you're here now, and we're still not out of trouble yet."
The boy took a deep breath, attempting to calm himself.
"Where is this place?" His voice was much easier to listen to now. "And why does my mind… my mind…"
The boy held his head awkwardly in his hands with a confused look, and the pixie rolled her eyes. She glanced around the dark cave and sighed.
"I think this is the Beryl Kingdom now." The pixie crossed its arms and thought for a moment. "Well, to be specific, this is a cave in the Beryl Kingdom. To be honest, this is the last place I want to be while those crazy magicians are out looking for sacrifices."
"Magicians?" Micro tilted his wobbly head in surprise at the word. "Sacrifices?"
"Do you think we can move along now?" The pixie's patience was running low. "If the magicians don't get us down here, the goblins will."
"Goblins?"
"If not something worse," the pixie said, and nodded again. "I'm getting a dungeon vibe from this place, and I still can't see very well. We can't stay here long."
"No parking…" The boy seemed to understand the pixie's words in his own way. "We should move then."
After taking a moment to inspect his limbs yet again, he managed to stand, then picked up the pixie in its cage.
"I'll try and keep the way lit." The pixie gave a thumbs up with its glowing hand. "Just don't drop me, and I think I'll be able to find a way out of here."
"I wouldn't drop a passenger…" the boy reassured the caged creature.
"Okay then," the pixie smiled. "Go that way!"
"Umm…" The boy suddenly stopped moving, startling the pixie.
"What's wrong?" it asked worriedly. "Can't you move?"
The boy looked around quietly, then frowned at the pixie.
"No signs…"
"What signs? What are you talking about?"
"What… is the speed limit… on this road?"
~
The cave was filled with strange echoes of unfamiliar sounds, but the loudest sounds were the ones coming from the boy and the pixie.
"Ouch!" a small voice screeched.
"Sor—Sorry…" the boy stuttered.
"I need to close my eyes for a bit, so just slow down for now!" she complained from the cage.
"Slow… Safe…" the boy mumbled.
"If you drop me one more time, it'll hurt you more!" She frowned. "Got it?"
"Safer, safer…" the boy said, and he did as he was asked.
The pixie closed her eyes and massaged her temples.
"Oh, my head…" She grimaced. "What a day this has been…"
"Bones…? the boy suddenly grumbled as he tripped again. "Bones…!"
He looked back at the large pile of crumbling, white, bones he'd tripped over with a shocked expression.
"That's what you'll look like soon if you don't pick up the pace," the pixie mumbled, giving a glance over her shoulders to the bones. "Looks mostly human, but there are some bear bones mixed in. A snake too, perhaps?" She rolled her eyes and groaned in pain.
The boy's awkward limbs moved faster as he tried to distance himself from the terrible scene, and he became more and more aware of the sound of his own heartbeat. He grabbed one ear in dismay as the sound of his own blood rushing through his veins drowned out the eerie echoes of the cave.
He only stumbled more as the strange blue robe he was wearing became wet with mud and sweat. He flailed his free arm helplessly, but he lost his balance yet again.
As his head collided with a rock, he noticed the sound of his own coarse breath, where the hum of an engine should be. It was suddenly hard to breathe as a sharp pain filled the side of his head.
"You're pathetic," the pixie lamented as she leaned against the bars of her tiny prison, still gripped firmly in the panicking boy's hand. She looked over at the dimly lit boy, bleeding and gasping for air while looking around at his surroundings with unfocused eyes. "Here…"
A warm sensation swept over the boy. His pain vanished and his mind cleared, though his confusion remained. He looked down at the pixie, but he could only catch a glimpse of her as she fainted in her cage and the light in her hand went out.
"You…" he said with wide eyes.
He listened closely with his mind now calm, and he heard the sound of the pixie's own breathing.
"Wake…" he spoke awkwardly. "Up…"
He listened to the sound of her breathing in the complete darkness of the cave, his head still full of questions.
"Wake up…" he repeated. "Wake…"
He continued to wait.
Chapter 003 - Core Cards?
In the darkness, the boy wasn't aware how much time had passed, but the pixie eventually stirred. With a cough, she once again created a small light in her hand.
"You calmed down," she said with a strained voice. "Good. Now move."
The boy stood up immediately and proceeded down the tunnel. He looked relieved, but his pace was still uneven.
"You're pretty fast once you get going, Micro," the pixie shouted over the sound of Micro's quick foot steps while being jostled about the cage. "But could you be a bit more gentle? This is no way to treat a lady."
Together they had run a fair distance through the seemingly endless labyrinth of tunnels, but still it seemed they were no closer to escaping the subsurface world of rocks and puddles.
"I'm known for being… reliable," he replied apologetically. "Not comfortable."
"Well, I think you can slow down now," the pixie said while grasping her head dizzily.
"Alright," he answered and slowed to a brisk walking speed. "I wonder if this is how bicycles feel."
"What's a bicycle?"
"Ugh…" The boy seemed surprised by the sounds and words coming out of his own mouth, but he relaxed as they seemed to come more naturally with time.
"No, really," the pixie said impatiently. "What's a bicycle?"
"They're like a car, but with pedals, and they only have two wheels," he explained with a frown. "There are more and more on the roads recently. Are they pedestrians or vehicles? Nobody seems to agree…"
"I didn't understand any of what you just said." The pixie smiled as she regained her composure. "I'm Blue, by the way."
"Yes, I can see that." He replied kindly.
"No, that's my name."
"What's your name?"
"Blue!" the pixie shouted, startling Micro.
He looked down at the cage in his hand curiously.
"I've never had such a small passenger." He squinted while observing her sparkling wings. "Are you a human child?"
Blue raised an eyebrow at his question.
"I'm probably older than you," she said. "But who's counting…"
"What on Earth are you then?"
"Firstly, we're not on whatever world you just named," she explained with a finger raised. "Secondly, I'm a pixie. Do you not have pixies where you're from?"
"This isn't Earth?" The boy gasped, looking around at the cave in shock. "It looks… like Earth."
"I can't tell if you're talking about your world or dirt, or both?" Blue's voice trailed off as she frowned. "So you've never seen a pixie, eh…?"
"I don't think so." Micro shrugged. "I heard a story about fairies on the radio once though. Are you like a fairy?"
"You!" Blue fumed. "Don't you mistake me for one of those pompous, dainty, nose-picking, good for nothing…"
Blue continued to insult fairies for a while before growing tired. Her light flickered for a while until she finally calmed down. However, Micro's attention was once again drawn to something he'd tripped over.
CLANG
"Hmm?" Micro stopped abruptly and looked down to find the source of the metallic sound. "Well that's inconsiderate. Somebody just left this in the middle of the road."
Shaking his head, he bent down to pick the object up. He nearly lost his balance, but he saved himself before knocking his head against another rock. The object he picked up after a few tries was a thin piece of metal, no bigger than a credit card, and was covered in strange patterns and symbols.
"Oh look, a Core Card," Blue observed casually. "Looks damaged though. The lower stage cards don't last long if you don't use them."
"Core? Is that a bank?" Micro observed it more closely, not seeing any familiar writing on it. When he flipped it over though, he noticed a picture of a snake.
"You don't have Core Cards in your world either?" Blue asked. "Well, they're nothing special. Cultivators use them for training. I guess they're kinda neat."
Micro held the Card up to the cage for her to see.
"Yeah, see?" She pointed at the unfamiliar writing. "It's a Jade Serpent Art card. That's the weakest stage. Oh, and that mark means it is a water type. But it's cracked right down the middle, so you wouldn't want to hold on to it. I'm more concerned that there could be a dungeon nearby. That's where cards like that are from."
"I didn't understand any of that…Sorry, Blue…" Micro apologized with a humble smile.
"No, it's fine," she mumbled. "I don't much care for that cultivation stuff. Pixies like me just use the power we're born with."
She proudly held her hands up and increased the amount of light for a moment before running out of breath.
"Well, once I've rested a while…" she panted. "Magicians keep using us in their weird rituals. They have no energy of their own, lazy pieces of—"
"Magicians… are like cultivators?" Micro spent a little more time looking at the card before tossing it to the side of the cave where it would be no nuisance to traffic.
"No no, cultivators figure out ways to increase their own energy reserves. They call it a core," she explained to her new companion. "They're more like Pixies in that sense, though it takes a long time to even make a low level core if you aren't born with magnificent bodies like us pixies. We're basically perfect."
"A jade core…" Micro nodded slowly, grasping his chest with his hand. "She said something like that…"
"She?" Blue asked. "You mean Nora? She taught you about cultivation? How unexpectedly helpful of her."
"No…" He struggled to recall the conversation. "When she brought me up into the sky… she said I had enough, what did she call it again… spiritual energy? She said I have enough to fill up a jade core."
"Hmm…" Blue's eyes began to glow again and looked at Micro's chest with squinting eyes. "Well, that is a surprise. From what I can tell, you do have some kind of core in there."
She observed for a while longer, but her expression became one of worry.
"That's strange…" she continued. "I don't have the best eyes, but something doesn't seem right in there. Do you feel very sick?"
Micro rubbed his chest and thought for a moment.
"It feels… strange," he eventually replied. "Like the time the old man's son put the wrong fuel in me."
"I'm having more and more trouble understanding what kind of life you led back in your world." Blue rolled her eyes at the odd story she'd heard. "But I think it's pretty clear you need help. If all that energy in your core isn't stabilized soon…"
The little pixie playfully mimed a painful death within the cage.
"I feel it too…" he agreed, a little entertained by her gestures. "It doesn't feel good. I don't think so, anyway."
Blue stood up again and stretched her small arms.
"Well, we're both dead anyways if we don't find our way out of here," she sighed. "And this cage is making it hard for me to recover my power. Let's keep moving."
"Got it," Micro replied with a strained smile and immediately began to move again. "Lead the way."