Witchers of Nifelheim - Part 2

"What the heck?!" Kaylee said in surprise, as Rain extended her hand from atop the galloping creature, as it ran next to Kaylee.
Without much time to think, she grabbed Rains hand, then looked back and took Mists hand as well, before ending up being swept away by the motion and landing atop the creature, together with Mist and Johan's half conscious body.

"AAaaaah! What's haa--ppening!" Johan started wiggling a bit, becoming more freaked out by the second.
The creature roared and bit off some other monsters head, as it galloped towards the humvee. The monster that got bit, crumbled to the ground and didn't get up again.


Pushing the humvee proved extremely difficult. The machine was heavy and stuck between pieces of debris, refusing to easily budge.
Without stopping, the eight legged creature galloped right into the humvee, headbutting it at full speed and making the vehicle slowly flip to the side and loudly land on its wheels.


Kaylee promptly jumped down with Johan, quickly helping him inside the car, before jumping behind the wheel:

"Everyone, get in quick!!" she yelled over the ruins. The swarm of corpses around you began regaining their senses and zero in on your position.


Kaylee nervously squeezed the wheel with both hands, waiting for everyone to board, before flooring the gas pedal and speeding ahead.
A corpse of a two meter tall griffon suddenly appeared in your path and Kaylee couldn't steer away in time. The humvee crashed into it, sending the creature to tumble over the humvee and fall on the other side, as the armored vehicle continued to speed forward.

The windshield was covered with god knows what and Kaylee had to turn on the windscreen wipers.


"What the hell's going on on this planet god damn it!" Kaylee nervously screamed out, her hands slightly shaking, as she steered the humvee left and right, trying to dodge the stone ruins and maintain decent speed.


A swarm of monsters was chasing you, snapping their jaws and staring at you with white, sickly eyes.


"...I know what this is" Johan said in fear, straightening up in his seat:
"I saw a movie about this once, we're in the Twilight Zone! Our deepest, darkest fears, become manifested into tangible objects that haunt us!
We talked about zombies and then zombies swarmed us from everywhere! If this is a coincidence, its one big god damn coincidence!"



The humvee cleared the city ruins and rolled onto a grassy plain. The snow laid here in a thin layer, melting in a few places. A few kilometers ahead, you could see a deep forest.
As the storm cleared, the visibility improved considerably and you noted that the city ruins stood atop a massive, long cliff.


Kaylee was driving somewhere along its edge.
Throwing a brief glance below, you could see a steep, kilometer long drop. Down below, was a long, wide shoreline, linking to an endless body of water.

Looking at the shore, under the cliff, you thought you saw something moving.


Kaylee briefly took her eyes of the road and her jaw slowly opened:

"...oh my god" she quietly whispered.




The shore under the cliff was in a state of motion. It took you several seconds to realize, you were looking at bodies, moving and shuffling down below.
Tens of thousands of dark rotting silhouettes were twisting and writhing on the shoreline, covering its every inch. They moved in unison, like waves of the ocean, slowly and steadily marching across the shoreline and slowly climbing their way up the cliff.


"...its a horde..." Kaylee quietly whispered: "... a legion. Where are they coming from"


"Our humvee is faster.." Johan quietly said, looking through the back window, watching as the creatures from the ruined city began to slowly fall behind and disappear from sight, under the dark veil of night.

Rain smiles and looks to the creature moving beside the vehicle, "Leigons of undead focused on endless bloodshed..." she says to kaylee, "Squiggles over there... thats its name now by the way... Squiggles showed extreme intrest with help in slaighter. I mentioned it and it became less hostile in a snap." She tilts her head, "such a beautiful and majestic creature~" she purrs.

After finally getting in and the car gets to a more safe location, Twilight lets out a sigh of relief. When she looked outside, she wasn't exactly happy seeing the undead spider coming along.

"More like disgusting and loathesome, you're suddenly fine with undead creatures?"

"Only if it has nothing to do with necromancy. After my attempt to tame the creature and being successful! I can say that they aren't just mindless abominations. Their sentiant with a goal, therefor Its a reason to believe its not necromancy." She looks to Twilight with a smile, "I dont hate the undead. If i hated all undead, Moon, and Fire, both would be on that list." She nods, "Im thinking that Squiggles is something like that." She leans in, "It understood me twilight... look at that thing out there, It understands our language, Aren't you curious as to why that is?"

"Absolutely not." She coldly replies.

"No matter the source, all these versions of false life are abominable in my eyes. Just the mere sight of it conflicts with my entire being. Who says the necromancer behind that thing isn't just instructing it to follow us until we're asleep so they can finish us off no problem?"

She looks away, scowling. "If this is what it all comes to, I never would've gone in. I'd rather lose my mind then."

"I can understand that." She pauses, "...But i know how much of a knowlege freak you are." She clears her throat going back to her more serious demenor and containing her exitement, "If it doesn't kill us though... we may have some wonderous research into an undead mind!" She looks outside, "Dont be mean to squiggles... he is with the party now and he is a ride when we dont have on no matter how much of an undead horror he is." She chuckles.

“This better not be some sort of ‘your worst nightmare’ experience, because mine tend to involve explosions and flying.” Mist mumbled as she stared out of the window, putting her weaponry away. The last thing she needed was a sharp blade in the middle of a cramped car. It was like an accident waiting to happen.

"I'd guess it was just bad timing with the necromancy debate," Radiance places his Wazikashi on his lap. Holding it like he's ready to draw the weapon at a moments notice, "I'll stick to my wings and legs for non-vehicle transport. And I'd rather figure out why that thing outside can speak from a proper one and not a version that sounds like a wet box of meat."

"..they're sentient.. with a goal, huh" Kaylee quietly repeated, looking at the road ahead:
"What goal are they after?"

Johan wearily looked at Twilight, then at Kaylee: "...I have a feeling we've only seen the tip of the iceberg."


The spider-like creature was galloping beside the car, slightly hissing from time to time. Upon the mention of false life, the thing suddenly emitted a piercing shriek and tried to headbutt the humvee's door, where Twilight was sitting.

"JESUS CHRIST!" Kaylee screamed out, veering the vehicle out of the way, making the creature miss.

The spider thing emitted a long, enraged shriek, before returning to run by the humvee. Its white sickly eyes were staring daggers at Twilight.

Johan went very pale and sunk into his seat: "Okay.. um.. it can clearly hear us.. so lets try to be careful about what we say around it"



Kaylee squinted at the road ahead and looked up: "...what is happening.."

"W-what's wrong?" Johan quickly called in alarm.

Kaylee continued to squint up for a while, before she said: "...the sky's turning red"




As you look out the window, you suddenly notice massive red clouds forming above, manifesting seemingly out of nowhere. The area slowly became engulfed with a dim red light.
Some kilometers away, over the tree tops of the forest, you noticed several figures rise into the air, as if scooped up by an invisible force. Their silhouettes looked human.


They raised their hands in unison and in the next second, a firestorm began to descend from the sky. Countless tiny meteors, burning with red melting lava, began raining down from the clouds and struck the ruins of the city behind you.


The horizon behind you caught fire and a series of distant explosions rocked the night, as the city ruins were hammered by a stream of meteor fire.


"HOLY SHIT!!!" Kaylee screamed, switching gears and accelerating. The meteors continued to rain from the clouds, creating massive explosions that kicked debris dozens of meters into the air. After a few moments, it became clear that you weren't the target.


Fire continued to rain from the sky, focused on the city ruins, then shifting to the shoreline under the cliff, even as the humvee moved a few dozen kilometers away from it all.
You could only see bright orange flames in the rear window after a while.



"Good... god" Kaylee slowly exhaled, turning on the long range headlights and continuing to run the car at full speed.
You were rolling over a grassy hill, partially covered in snow. The plain seemingly stretched on into the horizon, with a deep forest visible to your left.



Kaylee agreed to slow down only after 30 minutes of driving at full speed. The fires and the city ruins began to fade from view in the rear window and a relative silence fell over the area. Only the humvee's engine and the galloping of the spider creature could be heard.

As time passed, you began to develop a headache. A small sting of pain that appeared at the back of your head and slowly grew more severe.
Your body felt heavy, it didn't feel like a fever but you began loosing strength, like the start of a bad cold.


You noticed Kaylee's hands slightly shaking as she held the wheel. Her head sometimes lowering and jerking back up, as if she was about to fall asleep at any moment.

A few moments later, she began to slow down and rolled to a stop, by a large tree, just on the edge of the forest. Kaylee sighed, resting her forehead over the cars wheel and turned off the headlights:

"...I don't... feel so good" she quietly said. Her breath was becoming heavy, shallow:
"Maybe we should... rest here, for a bit..." she moved her head slightly, staring at the forest:

"...at least until morning.."

After kaylee swerves to evade squiggles rain simply smiles at twilight, "Watch your tongue TwiTwi~" she giggles.

As the ride continues she simply watches the flames in the distance, The further they got the more tired Rain felt. She takes a deep breath and steps out when they finally stop, "Squigglesssss." She calls slowly moving up to her monster, "How you doing buddy?" She holds her hand out and rubs the things neck, she frowns tiredly at the Rapier still in its neck, "Can I get that back without hurting you?" One of her ears flop as she stumbles a bit in her exaustion, "Also dont kill me in my sleep, it would really suck to die just as soon as we got here."

She looks over in the direction of the city, "Other then bloodshed and slaughter... I am curious of your goals..." she falls onto her butt and takes a moment to try and recouperate, "as much as im eager for spiking heads and the such." She frowns, "Im really intrested in figuring out what this place is... why these things work the way they do, not to say we wont have to carve a path of blood and heads, but my friends hope it doesn't come to that." She smiles up at the beast, "Im sure the locals dont like you all that much, red sky and meteors and all that, just dont get yourself killed..." she frowns, "Im trusting you to keep us safe... dont let me regret it." She chuckles crawling up to the humvee and resting her back against the back tyre.

The spider-like creature slowly followed Rain. As she sat down by the cars tire, the spider slowly sat down next to her. Its ghostly eyes looking at Rain. For a long moment, it sat there in silence. Only the distant chirping of forest creatures could be heard in the distance.


My goal is... I want to live.

These thoughts simply formed inside Rains head. No one spoke. The spider-like creature didn't emit a sound, but it was intently looking at Rain the whole time.


This little toy cannot harm me. Not in a million years. The words formed in Rains mind again, as the creature slowly moved its neck, with the rapier still stuck in it. You get the feeling it was smiling. It was hard to tell with its four jaws.

Kaylee nor Johan didn't react in any way. It seems only Rain could hear these words.


I will not harm you. It would be counter productive at this point.

Something began to happen to the creatures body. It slowly began to dry up, before your very eyes.

I must rest as well. Keep me safe until morning.
I will wake you, if dangers comes

The spider-like creature visibly nodded to Rain, before its body slowly turned into dust and crumbled, scattering over the ground.
Moments later, you couldn't make out its remains, among the snow.

Its presence however, lingered. Rain could feel it in her bones.
You're not sure how, but you could feel it.



"It.. died?.." Johan asked in confusion, looking at the spot where the creature once stood.
You get the feeling he doesn't feel the creatures presence. It seems only Rain could.



Kaylee slowly stepped out of the vehicle and looked around.
You seem to be standing on a snowy plain, just on the edge of the forest. The snow was different here, strange. Its snowflakes faintly sparkled with a green tint, as if an emerald dust was sparkled atop of it.


"Wow.. look at the sky" Kaylee quietly said.


The night was clear. The storm clouds had moved far into the distance, revealing a clear night sky above.
But something felt off. Weird and eerie in some way.

After several moments, you realized the problem.



There were no stars.




In the capital cities of the Union, where skyscrapers reached into the clouds and the cities never slept, the night skies were filled with residual light, obscuring the shine of the stars.
It was only out in the country side, in nature, far away from the big cities, could you really see the whole majesty of a night sky. With countless starts shining down from above.



But out here, on this alien planet, being so far away from civilization, you expected to see an endless field of stars.
But there was nothing. The sky was completely empty of light.
No stars, no moons. No sun.

Only an unending darkness.



".......I was hoping to see the constellations" Kaylee quietly said after a moment: "A faint chance to figure out where we are, based on the stars... but...

They're not there... there's nothing up there... how is this possible?"

Rain seems stunned by the fact it communicated with her for a moment before sighing softly, "Very well." She leans forward onto her hands and knees to obtain her rapier, "When I awake however I may have some questions." Her eyes turn to Johan, "No... He's right here." She puts her fist to her heart before She sticks the blade into is sheath and looks up, "Well... we have a couple options here... one... Blackhole... two... this place is so far from actual stars that when it popped into existance, Light hasn't reached it yet. Just a thought."

~I won't silence myself for that misbegotten vermin. I have my views and codes, I don't deviate from them so easily.~ Twilight thought to herself. She looks both annoyed and melachonic. ~Why did I listen when they suggested these people?~

After the car stopped and she got out, she looked a bit better, now that the spider was gone. But when the sky was mentioned, she looked up with seriousness. She frowned then.

"Even in the city, a few stars shine through, depending on the angle you're looking. Given our location and the weather, they should be here as well. Hmmm..." She pondered. "A lack of stars would suggest that there's something covering them. I would say that the witchers are behind this. There's ample motive, especially with what we just encountered..."

"But.. why hide the stars? From who?" Johan slowly asked, taking a seat beside the humvee and looking up:
"I'm afraid of even asking how.."

Kaylee heavily fell on the ground as well, taking a hold of her knees: "...everything's so strange here...
Maybe we really are on the edge of the galaxy, so far from everything that the stars light doesn't reach us.

But.. this planet must be circling a star of some kind.. there's green plant life and trees. They must need light to thrive.."



She looked down at the snow that faintly sparkled with green:

"...our children.. are out here, somewhere.. in all this? How did they survive for this long.. if they even-.." She shut her eyes tight and immediately began shaking her head:

"No... we have to believe that they did.
Which means.. our first stop should be the village of Beauclair. Kaznachey said the local folk were seen carrying children out of the woods, running towards the village.
He said its north-east of here.

We just need to figure out where north is.. and set out in the morning"



Johan nodded, then looked around: "..we need to find a safe place to sleep.. in the car maybe?"

Kaylee Brown wrote:The spider-like creature slowly followed Rain. As she sat down by the cars tire, the spider slowly sat down next to her. Its ghostly eyes looking at Rain. For a long moment, it sat there in silence. Only the distant chirping of forest creatures could be heard in the distance.


My goal is... I want to live.

These thoughts simply formed inside Rains head. No one spoke. The spider-like creature didn't emit a sound, but it was intently looking at Rain the whole time.


This little toy cannot harm me. Not in a million years. The words formed in Rains mind again, as the creature slowly moved its neck, with the rapier still stuck in it. You get the feeling it was smiling. It was hard to tell with its four jaws.

Kaylee nor Johan didn't react in any way. It seems only Rain could hear these words.


I will not harm you. It would be counter productive at this point.

Something began to happen to the creatures body. It slowly began to dry up, before your very eyes.

I must rest as well. Keep me safe until morning.
I will wake you, if dangers comes

The spider-like creature visibly nodded to Rain, before its body slowly turned into dust and crumbled, scattering over the ground.
Moments later, you couldn't make out its remains, among the snow.

Its presence however, lingered. Rain could feel it in her bones.
You're not sure how, but you could feel it.



"It.. died?.." Johan asked in confusion, looking at the spot where the creature once stood.
You get the feeling he doesn't feel the creatures presence. It seems only Rain could.

"Well this world did get a truly massive influx of magic a couple of decades ago, focused into eight or so very small areas, and by the sounds of it, thanks to our shelling, the last one of those points went very badly wrong" Rogue says,

"It's not that hard to imagine that that sheer amount of raw power just flooding in uncontrolled, could cause the natural order of things to go completely out of whack. There might not be a necromancer at all, and these undead have simply occured naturally, which might explain why they seem to exhibit free will.

Besides, I doubt this might have anything to do with our fears. As I said, I don't fear undead by a long shot, and many of the rest of us also fear other things much more than animated corpses."

Kaylee Brown wrote:"But.. why hide the stars? From who?" Johan slowly asked, taking a seat beside the humvee and looking up:
"I'm afraid of even asking how.."

Kaylee heavily fell on the ground as well, taking a hold of her knees: "...everything's so strange here...
Maybe we really are on the edge of the galaxy, so far from everything that the stars light doesn't reach us.

But.. this planet must be circling a star of some kind.. there's green plant life and trees. They must need light to thrive.."



She looked down at the snow that faintly sparkled with green:

"...our children.. are out here, somewhere.. in all this? How did they survive for this long.. if they even-.." She shut her eyes tight and immediately began shaking her head:

"No... we have to believe that they did.
Which means.. our first stop should be the village of Beauclair. Kaznachey said the local folk were seen carrying children out of the woods, running towards the village.
He said its north-east of here.

We just need to figure out where north is.. and set out in the morning"



Johan nodded, then looked around: "..we need to find a safe place to sleep.. in the car maybe?"

"There are alternatives to the light of the sun for life to thrive" Rogue says "They could be chemosynthetic, and gain all their energy from chemical reactions, or radiosynthetic, and gain all their energy from radiation sources?

It's also possible that this is a rogue planet, a planet not in orbit around a parent star, and just drifting through space?"

"Squiggles, can you tell us anything about where we are." She says not moving from her position, "Any information about the cycle here?"

She seems to be talking to herself, Rain might actually be insane.

"Then how would it have the conditions to sustain human life for as long as it has?" Twilight replies unconvinced. Maybe the life here doesn't but rememeber that humans have been around here all the same. Weird to say, but we found the one planet with conditions similiar enought for humans to inhabit."

She looks down to ponder though. "But what I don't get is this... It's been less then 1300 years since the first humans arrived. How come they completely lost all semblance of a language they spoke? That it would be like a strange dialect of the original language of Ragnveig would be more logical. Or Soren, maybe a mix of both. But it should be understandable to a degree.."

She folds her arms. "A potential time delay would explain how it took so long for the towers to set up. What was four days for us was 19 years for them. And 9 times 19..." Her eyes widen. "That would mean, that they've been at this for about 160 years. What happened here that made them plan this out for such a ridicilous long time?"

“I think we should just get some sleep and ask someone about all this when we reach civilisation. It’s no use worrying ourselves when we don’t even know how this world works. I’m sure all will become apparent when we speak with someone, now let’s just get some sleep.” Mist mumbled and lay back, her back against the side of the humvee. She stretched her legs out and sighed, looking at the others.

Johan uncomfortably shivered: "What if we really are on a rogue planet.. drifting through space. Just thinking about it makes me shiver"


Kaylee slightly nodded: "Mmm.. the port city of Ragnveig was located in the country of the Obsidian Cliffs. We don't really know their language.
Maybe the Nifel language really is just a dialect of Obsidian, and we didn't even notice. The words, pronunciation and writing slightly changed over time, to reflect their new world or their new culture"



Squiggles remained quiet. He might be already asleep.


Kaylee looked around and nodded: "Alright. Lets get some sleep. We'll need the energy for tomorrow"

She and Johan decided to go to sleep in the car, right in the seats. Kaylee drifted off to sleep almost immediately. Johan mentioned something about a headache and drifted off as well, resting his head on the doors window.



The night went by very slowly. Your dreams were plagued by bizarre images of weird, transparent plants and strange four eyed foxes that ran on all fours and towered 3 meters above the ground.
Towards the end, you started hearing voices in your head. They spoke in hushes whispers and you couldn't understand what they were saying, but something about it seemed eerie.
You felt as if someone was watching your memories with you and commenting on them, from time to time.


When you woke up, the headaches only got worse. A dark night still hung over the snow plains, only the weather has improved.
The clock in the humvee showed that 10 hours have passed, yet no light has shown.



Looking outside the humvee, you notice Kaylee.
She had taken off her hard suit completely and now stood in plain sports clothes, on the edge of the forest.
She was wearing a sleeveless shirt, amidst the snow. Just looking at her, made you shiver from cold.


Something about her seemed off almost immediately. She was standing under a massive tree with thick branches, looking at the sky and raising her hands upward. Her palms were on the level of her shoulders, facing up.

She just stood there like this, unmoving, for several moments. Then took a few steps forward and stood under the night sky, still looking up and holding her palms upward. Waited, then took a few steps back, standing under the tree.


You noticed black circles under her eyes. She looked pale and really sick, like someone who caught a very bad cold.

Even when you woke up, she didn't react, continuing her motions of standing under the tree, then moving away from it, while looking upward.

Rain had awoken she had passed out laying next to yhe vehicles tyre. She looks around with her tired eyes, gazing around before spotting Kaylee. The blue mare slowly rises, the gentle hiss of her main sword becoming halfway drawn before she pauses, "Kaylee." She says sternly, "What are you doing?" She asks more calmly. A secondary tone in her voice holds worry and she stares at kaylee with curiosity.

Mist hadn’t slept much for the night. She didn’t cope well with nightmares, so spent most of the early night making sure nothing Came their way. But the later it got, She eventually managed to drift off. Gently, she rubbed her head and got out of the humvee, slowly approaching Kaylee.

“Kaylee sweetie? Are you alright?” She asked quietly as she approached.

"..I think I caught a virus.. or something, but.. I'm alright" Kaylee quietly said, still staring up at the sky:

"I was just checking something. Here, stand next to me. Without the helmet. You'll see what I mean"
She said, standing under the tree again.



"..Kaylee?" Johan quietly called: "..why did you remove the hard suit?"


"It didn't do anything" Kaylee quietly replied, still looking up: "I had it sealed this whole time, never opened the helmet. But I still got sick. And it was really bulky.. restricting my movements, slowing me down..
Come, stand over here. I want to check something" she quietly said.

Rains arm snaps out protectively like a mother would, it makes contact with mists chest, she softly shakes her head without saying anything, something in her eyes was worrying, "Kaylee... Im not coming near you until you turn around." She glares, "Turn around, now." She commands a bit more fearsely this time.

With a frown, Twilight got out of the car, her helmet off. Noticing she wasn't really feeling trouble breathing, she concluded the air was safe enough, at least for humans to survive in.

She took note of the scene outside, which did not help her mood.

"Guys... Can this stuff wait a little?" She says exhausted. "It's too dark and early for this behaviour."

She looks inside the car. "I hope there's coffee..."