The Ramparts (2)

Brief Tree note:

It's come to my attention that I somehow spelt bow how and vine vibe

Imma just leave them there, but back to the story

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The ramparts seemed to stretch on endlessly into the distance.

With no visible end in sight, the gigantic pieces of stone half my size and probably twice as heavy were stacked in straight lines.

It was honestly impressive how far they stacked these things.

And it was pretty solid as well.

Tapping the skull of an undead archer against it and watching it disintegrate into dust, I just had to wonder though.

'How far did they even build this thing?!?'

Having walked until my feet were sore, the midday sun hung high up in the sky as I looked for an entrance to this gigantic wall that could never be climbed up with normal means.

'I know that the great wall of china exists and so do the pyramids, but this is just insane.

Seemingly the same length as the great wall of china while being just as tall as the pyramids, one just had to wonder how many people died building this place.

Whether they died by age or by accidents, the fact remained that the wall I was staring at was most definitely one that required the blood, sweat and tears of many.

'That reminds me of that drug dealer.'

In the past when I was alive, there was man who had received so many bricks of drugs to the point that they made it a hobby to mimic grand structures out of the bricks, it was honestly impressive how far he went before getting caught.

Recalling the roman coliseum replica he had made out of bricks my hand felt no resistance as I belatedly caught my balance.

"Whoops!"

Blinking in confusion, my eyes soon focussed on the immediate area.

Then they were dragged to the door on the side of the wall with stairs heading upwards, a golden glow being cast on it.

"...I guess I found the entrance."

Flexing my hands that had regained their bandaged clothes, I began to walk upwards, the red scarf surrounding my neck fluttering in the wind.

Space warped.

Twisting around as if in a kaleidoscope, the world around me fragmented into several mirrored pieces before swiftly rearranging themselves like a puzzle.

"I see you have returned..."

"Well hello to you to."

Rubbing the back of my head, I surprisedly at the man who called himself the collector.

Still sporting the same black gothic themed clothing with the numerous chains on his body, if there was one thing to note that was different it was that the giant glass tube on its back was slightly more filled with the unknown glowing blue liquid.

It reminded me of the bioluminescent algae in Puerto Rico, just constantly glowing in this case.

It was weird though.

I was perfectly sure that when I went from the prisoner's quarters to the promenade of the condemned I knew for a fact that I met the collector there.

It was how I even received the vial meant to collect cells in the first place.

"So... Do you have any Cells for me?"

Gritty and scratchy voice leaking out of his mouth, I nodded my head and made a show of pulling out the cells from the vial around my waist.

I noted that even when the inventory was in front of the collector he didn't react so either it was common or he couldn't see it in the first place.

'...DId I do this before? I forget.'

Blinking, I brought out several cells in my hand and showed them to the collector.

"Yes I did, so what was it that you were going to procure for me?"

"..." Staring at the clump of blue balls that resembled jelly on closer inspection, he nodded before pulling out a scroll from their bosom.

"Take a look at the catalogue, the price is written besides it."

"Thank you."

Showing my thanks to the man, I shoved the cells back into the vial and noted that the collector was still staring at the vial filled to the brim with blue cells.

Subtly moving my waist to adjust my posture to run away if needed if the cells turned out to be something akin to drugs, I appraised the catalogue.

'Well this is more varied than I thought.'

I thought that the collector would mostly have weapons on the catalogue and I wasn't wrong.

But what I didn't expect was that the collector didn't only just have weapons.

Being just about anything, the collector had food, water, furniture, general necessities, something called skill plates and even a few mutations.

'I should probably get some of these skill plates to see what they are.'

Moving the scroll to look at these skill plates, I read their names and looked at the surprisingly well drawn appearances.

Separated into three different portions, they were deployables that could autonomously attack things, grenades which were literally just that and powers that seemed to be things that I could use on myself.

But without buying them I couldn't know what they did.

So I bought them alongside a few items.

"Can I have a chair, a tonic, a sinew slicer, and an infantry grenade?"

Taking the scroll from me, the collector raised a glowing eyebrow.

"Are you sure? It will be many cells."

"Gimme."

Handing out a clump of the cells, the collector stared at the blue blob before snatching it out of my hands with a surprising speed.

Counting them swiftly, I stared warily at the collector that had seemed to become obsessed over the blue cells, glaring with bloodshot eyes at the cells.

"..."

"So... Can I have the things I bought now?"

Hesitantly speaking, I spoke up to the collector who then flinched as if remembering where they were.

"Ah, yes, yes, I was just lost in thought for a moment."

'Decent company my ass, It looked like you just received drugs after abstaining from them.'

Hurriedly stuffing the cells into a skull shaped vial on their waist that was definitely not ominous at all, I amusedly thought to myself all the while making sure that I could immediately bring out the bloody sword if the time called for it.

Taking in a deep shuddering breath that wasn't helping the collector beat the druggie allegations, the next movements of theirs definitely did.

Smoothly fiddling with the skull shaped vial, he pulled out several sticks.

Eyes flickering wildly as the blue light leaked out of them, they brought out four different sticks and explained.

"Break them to receive your bought items, now then, what was your question?"

"?"

Perhaps the confusion was evident on my very existing face, but the collector spoke again.

"Do you not remember? Because you gave me so many Cells I am willing to answer some of your questions about this place."

'...Why didn't you seem so sane when receiving the cells.'

Feeling the strange disconnect with the collectors current actions and the previous ones, it wasn't a lie that I was curious about this place.

"So then... Could you tell me how you are here when I left you in the passageway between the Promenade of the Condemned and the Prisoner's quarters?"

"Is that where you came from? Well it's because this island is... strange." Gesturing at the air, the collector continued. "I don't exactly understand the principles behind it, but it's because of the recent time changes in this place, surely you've felt it by now?"

'...I haven't but I'll nod like I do.'

"Time is strange here, a single moment could stretch on to become minutes while an hour could feel as long as a minute, time here has regulated itself somewhat."

"Was it much worse in the past?"

"Yes." Nodding his head, the collector avidly explained. "In the past it was much worse, with the infection running amuck alongside this time stream nonsense, the space on this island has become warped, different."

"Aha..." Nodding my head, I made the connection in my head. "So then what you're saying is that due to the problems with time, space has warped and now this passageway is everywhere?"

"Although I do not understand the principles behind it, the passageway is only located in the places separating one area from another, much like the area between the Black Bridge and the Fractured Shrines."

"The Fractured shrines?"

Eyes snapping towards the collectors face as I was ripped out of my pondering with those words, I instantly recalled the excerpt in the book.

"Does it have giant swords of stone with snakes wrapped around them?"

"...Yes" Blue eyes staring at me, the Collector waved me away, turning around to show their honestly fun awful posture reminiscent of my Handler's computer stuck back.

"Now that I have answered your questions, if you want more of them you should provide some more cells, and if you don't then I won't bother you."

'And you should stop bothering me.' Leaving that last portion unsaid, I nevertheless got the hint and moved past the gigantic blue door.

"Hello Guillian."

"Hm?" Head poking out of the fresh pile of corpses that looked... just like me??? Guillian giggled amongst the dead.

"Oh hi there Slade! Long time no see! I thought you died!"

"...Yeah." Dragging my eyes away from the numerous piles of headless corpses wearing the same clothing as me, I hoped to death that they were just wearing the same clothes as me.

I certainly didn't need another existential crisis after finding out I could replace my own head with one that wasn't my own, one identity crisis was already to much for me.

Schizophrenia as I found out from three of the friends of mine was something I wasn't going to be coming to terms with anytime soon.

How would you react if the house that you lived in all your life actually had one more inhabitant that you never even knew existed until now?

So yeah, let's just ignore the corpses and talk to Guillian about some more mutations.

'Yes let's'

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