SOUL ORBS

It seems that Sillabot is not as dead as we imagined. But you sensed it already," Laertes said when Glax and Rasmus found him on the pier at dawn.

The fog gave a ghostly atmosphere to the small port and the imposing figure of Medeia, the only ship docked at the pier. Fishermen were putting their boats out to sea.

"What happened?"

"People went over there to rescue more bodies... They saw Sillabot's wreckage move, and they raised the alarm."

"Should we go over there?" Rasmus asked.

Glax nodded. He still wanted to know what fed the monster and what that intelligence was. Too bad, at that moment, all they had were boats and no type of weapon. Many of the wounded warriors were in the temple. Apparently it was the place where people who needed intensive medical care were taken.

Iasonas provided the boats necessary for Glax and other warriors to go there again. Without knowing exactly what to expect this time, the situation was even more perilous.

Glax was at the bottom of the boat, with Rasmus and four other men.

They carried green lanterns and torches with them, because of the heavy fog after the rain.

The low tide moved the sea in gentle, calm waves. The sea birds landed on the floating debris and also on the bodies that floated, already putrid and swollen, on the way.

Glax frowned, seeing small orbs of light near the bodies.

"Rasmus... What are these... fireflies?" He asked quietly to his colleague, sensing they were not merely insects, but something of a supernatural origin. Maybe that was why the hairs on his body were standing on end.

Rasmus looked around, and replied, "Ah, the spirits of the dead, you mean?"

"What do you mean, the spirits of the dead?"

"C'mon, Glax. This happens to the dead who are waiting to set foot in Hell. Even though we left the Underworld, we still live in the land of the dead."

"...!" Glax didn't even know what to ask next, because it filled his mind with confusion.

"Ouch. And ... where do the dead go now?"

"AH..."

"To Erimos," one of the warriors in the boat with them spoke, without looking away from the bow and the fine mist. "They are going to Erimos. The source of the Leto River is there. The real Leto river, I mean. And after they cross the river, the Old Invisible Man judges them. And they can be reborn or stay there."

'Basically, they cut the sector's budget, cut costs and personnel,' he thought, recalling that Erimos was just a part of the map he had seen, in the far north. "It's weird," he commented.

"As soon as the bodies are properly purified and consecrated, the orbs disappear..." Whispered Rasmus, again as a person who didn't seem to know what it was to whisper.

The warrior looked back this time. "It even looks like you've never seen a dead man up now, Lord Glax."

"Uh, just... fresh dead ones."

Then a question arose in his mind. 'I didn't see Chriseis's orb… Did something happen to it?'

"So you have never been on an old battlefield?" the warrior winced.

Glax said nothing. He was the Champion of Armorion. It was inexplicable that he had never really fought like everyone else.

"Lucky you." The warrior replied, accepting the lack of answer as an actual answer and turning forward again. Like everyone else, he was also contrite.

They did the rest of the journey in silence. Soon he saw, through the fret, the dark scrap mountain floating near the small desolate island. Navigating was difficult because of the floating obstacles.

Sillabot was on his back, a black pile of scrap floating partly stranded on the islet rocks. The fire had consumed the flat hull, but the metallic torso part was more resistant.

The mecha was not moving. But Glax knew he was still a potential danger.

Glax jumped onto a rock and then climbed onto the half-destroyed carcass of the monster's chest, and Rasmus followed suit. Sillabot shook under their feet.

The Valosian arrived at what was left of the monster's head _ cracked, blackened and semi-submerged.

"So you are still agonizing, Sillabot?"

There was obviously no answer but the trembling and a hollow sound of air in the tubes. But Glax now knew what to look for and where to look.

"Can you understand him? What is he?" Rasmus asked,

"I can't understand him. But I think I know what he is," he replied absently, poking the exposed space between the robot's head and body with his foot.

Behind and totally protected by sturdy iron rings, a large copper tube seemed to be the root of everything. Or connected to it, at least.

"Will you say it or keep it to yourself?" Rasmus questioned after Glax's silent musings.

"I don't know who created him. But Sillabot is animated by a kind of... intelligence. He can think and plan, at least. Something has happened, and he has a defect. So he can't do much, but try to rebuild himself the best he could... A defect caused by this thing." Again he poked the copper tube. He sensed how the 'creature' inside Sillabot was on edge, but unable to do anything, every time he poked the tube.

"And what is this?"

"I don't know what the name is, but it is... ichor. Corrupted ichor. Shall I call it 'antichor'?" Glax spoke his thoughts aloud.

"I swear I don't understand anything of what you're talking about. Suddenly it seems my friend has become even crazier than he already was. You even look like... someone else." Rasmus complained, crouching down to take a closer look at the tube coming from Sillabot's head.

"Maybe I really became someone else," Glax muttered. "Ichor. The immortal blood. Somehow, this is the exact opposite."

"It corrupts matter and mind, but... it also gives life."

"And can it be destroyed?"

It was a question that Glax could expect from an echelian warrior.

"I don't know."

"And how are we going to destroy this, if he can be resurrected?"

"Apparently, resurrecting is not even a novelty in Stygia, Rasmus. I don't know, but I intend to find out what needs to be done. At the moment, the only thing that can be done is to unplug it."

"Hm?"

Of course, his fellow Valosian would not understand the metaphor. Glax got up and went back to the hole in Sillabot's belly. Now it was a stinking, dark pit from where weird vapors came out. But that was where he needed to shut down.

They descended into what was once Sillabot's huge furnace, while the warriors held ropes to pull Rasmus and Glax if necessary.

The soft luminescence coming from one side guided Glax, with Rasmus behind him in readiness with his shield and spear.

They ended up having to dip half the body into the black mud filling the innards of the giant robot, to reach the point where Glax saw Sillabot's 'core'.

The pipe they had seen on the robot's neck reached a metal cage where an irregularly shaped object emitted light and heat, pulsating intermittently.

"Is that the heart of the monster?"

"Kind of… Glax spoke. "Lend me your spear."

Rasmus handed him the spear without further questions, but wisely placed himself next to Glax, preparing his shield.

Glax used the spear to poke the object inside the cage. The fiery heat intensified. He slipped the tip of the spear into the joint under the pipes that fed that object with the antichor. Then he forced it to release the 'stone' from the pipe.

Everything around them quaked, and the metallic agonizing shriek became unbearable.

Rasmus, who was on standby, placed the shield over their heads, knowing they could not get to the exit immediately. The soot and pieces of the robot fell apart and over them. At the same time that the stone was glowing menacingly.

Uh-oh!

Glax pulled Rasmus down and they both sank into the mud made of seawater, soot and debris, but not before the two friends saw the flash of red light take in the interior of Sillabot.

Glax and Rasmus held their breaths for a moment, but when they raised their heads again, they saw the place dotted with lights.

And more lights were coming in through the gaping hole in Mecha's belly.

The spirits that roamed the sea.

"WHATAFAQ!"

"Whatafaq!" Rasmus echoed his words.

As if in implosion, they all came together in one big orb, and flew into the sky before the witnesses' dumbfounded eyes.

"What shit was this?!" Glax murmured.

"If you don't know, how am I supposed to know? The spirits..."

The intelligence that commanded Sillabot was gone, and only the gods knew where, Glax concluded.

When they left the hole, relieved to leave that oppressive and dark place, Glax saw two small boats approaching slowly. Men in long robes were standing on them, and the view was quite bleak.

"Who are they?" he asked.

The same warrior as before said, with a worried tone.

"Rhoas Sorcerers."

And that didn't sound very encouraging.