Keys to the Universe: Fantasy World, #2

By EDGARS AUZIŅŠ

Spots appear underfoot, new worlds are not welcoming: a space station where robots have rebelled, a post-apocalyptic world, strange towers in the middle of an ocean that has swallowed the earth. But sometimes you get lucky and you can stop and rest. But only the portals care how tired Yegor and Khim are, they just open and pull on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: EDGARS AUZINS
• Release date: Apr 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224467082

EDGARS AUZIŅŠ

Dzimis 1989. gada 22. decembrī. Absolvējis Rīgas Juridisko koledžu. Profesijā nav strādājis, bet apguvis programmēšanas prasmes un pašlaik ar to nodarbojas. Kopš 2022. gada ir personīgā uzņēmuma vadītājs, kas nodarbojas ar transporta pārvadājumiem, kā arī programmēšanu. Dzīvnieku, īpaši suņu, mīļotājs. Born 22 December 1989. Graduated from Riga College of Law. Has not worked in the profession, but has acquired programming skills and is currently working in it. Since 2022 he has been the CEO of his own company, which deals with transport transport as well as programming. Lover of animals, especially dogs.

Book preview

Chapter 1

An hour or two passed, the blot did not appear. Yegor sat on the floor, tiredly staring out the broken window. The sun moved slowly across the sky, but more and more clouds obscured it, and the weather deteriorated.

Raevsky, having nothing else to do, went through the contents of the backpack - a jacket, a shirt, an enchanted cloak. Everything was now tightly rolled into the most compact roll possible. A sword wrapped in some kind of rag, a bag of tobacco. He did not find the case with the crossbow taken from the corpse of the order. Where could he have gone? Now you can't find it anymore. Several packs of pistol cartridges, a couple of loaded magazines, and a pistol, he had nothing else left. Unless, of course, you count what he's wearing. Taking out a pipe and a new lighter that Gren had given him, he twirled the gift in his hands for a minute. It resembled a piece, was metallic, elongated, and, most importantly, almost eternal, it was powered by crystalline dust, which on Eleria moved cars and allowed people to shoot at each other. The elf assured that a full refill would last for about three years, unless, of course, you tried to use it as a torch; it couldn’t get wet, it was extremely difficult to break, it was a useful thing. Egor lit a cigarette and stroked the chimeric lying next to him. He was in the form of a rat, the most convenient for transportation to a blot. How it worked, Raevsky did not understand; in his true form he weighed almost a hundred kilograms, the dog was about fifty dollars, and the rat was a little more than ten kilograms.

Having lit a cigarette, Yegor closed his eyes, he wouldn’t miss the blot, it always appears nearby and smells it. But why it doesn’t appear is the hundred million question. Finn didn't know how it worked, he just used it and that's it. Raevsky had a good look in the vision, the wanderer took the star, and not even a couple of minutes had passed before the blot appeared next to him.

Master, Him mentally called, a roar in the sky is approaching from the west.

Cascade, who was forced to drink wine instead of water, and who was carried away on an empty stomach, barely rose to his feet, listening. It was not for him to compete with the chimeric in terms of smell, hearing and even farsightedness; the magically created beast was beyond competition.

- Where exactly? - Yegor asked for clarification.

The rat extended its paw towards the large arched windows.

Pulling the rifle from his back, the former stuntman headed towards the opposite wall, thoughts in his slightly tipsy head turning with great difficulty. He crossed the hall, stood to the side so as not to present himself as a full-fledged target, and quickly looked out the window. Well, he expected something like this; a local landing boat was flying right at him at an altitude of fifty meters, most likely the same one that had brought the already deceased hunters, but next to which the last of the orcs remained. He also discovered the egg of an observation drone hanging right outside the window some twenty meters away. Everything was clear, the orc somehow found out that the force that covered this town and made it inaccessible to people and serious reconnaissance devices had disappeared, after which he sent his eye to find a search party, and found - bodies, there are a lot of them according to Lirask lying around. The next task was to scan the ruins and locate the target. And the drone dealt with this, found it and let us know, but Egor didn’t notice anything. And how will you notice? He will probably scan for kilometers around, above all the best, this is not a ball from the wall surrounding the trash heap, and not even the little eye that Gren had, this one is most likely much cooler. And now the orc raised his coffin into the air. The target has been found, he is in armor, with a normal weapon, he needs to be tied up with a man. And the vivisectors will get even for the death of their own, and maybe he himself will break his legs and arms, this will not in any way affect the quality of the information received.

Egor raised his rifle, trying to catch the observer in his sights, but he abruptly went to the side, flying another fifty meters. Now there was no point in thinking about shooting him, there was no question of shooting at the flying coffin.

The landing transport hung over the square and began to slowly descend. Raevsky even sobered up from the influx of adrenaline, as always happened before a serious fight. He quickly ran across the hall and pulled his backpack onto his back, which he had taken off to make it more comfortable to sit.

Him, let’s turn into a chimera, Cascade ordered. Now we need everything that will help us win. A rat and a dog will not contribute to this in any way, but an almost adult chimera is a trump card. We have only one advantage over this walking tank: he still needs me alive, but I don’t.

Him began to grow slowly, and within five seconds a chimera was sitting in front of Yegor, ready to fight for its owner.

On the ceiling right above the window, Yegor ordered, just so that the eye can’t see you. You'll fall on his head when he comes here.

For some reason, Raevsky decided that the orc would simply jump through the window; he, having a total advantage and complete contempt for the person as an enemy, would have done exactly that. Although, perhaps, he has already earned the respect of the highest, because he killed other orcs and the people assigned to them. He was hoping for precisely this contempt, it could work on his side. But most of all he relied on the dagger, which never failed him.

Khim unquestioningly carried out the order. He quickly jumped onto the wall between the windows, his strong silver claws grabbed the wet plaster, the chimeric, moving his paws quite quickly, climbed under the four-meter ceiling and froze in the shadows.

Yegor, clutching a rifle in his hands, limped, reached the previous shelter and looked out again, this time not being particularly careful, there was no point in hiding. On the contrary, he must do everything so that the enemy enters him through this particular window. The only pity is that the openings were from floor to ceiling; it was not possible to place the chimera exactly above the entry point. He arrived at the position on time, the coffin sank onto the stone square and froze. The wall opened, and a lone orc climbed out, completely covered in armor, from his heels to the top of his head. Now, in the light of day, it seemed even more massive and indestructible. If there had been the slightest chance to escape, Raevsky would have done just that. But escaping from a tracking drone, even while riding a chimera, is unrealistic. Now that eyes are allowed over the city, the chances of hiding are zero point, zero tenth. No one else appeared from the landing bot. Cascade feared that perhaps reinforcements had arrived and he would once again have a full infantry squad against him. But no, thank God, one showed up. But his gun turned out to be familiar, not a plasma gun, but a discharger, better than the one Zhelezyaka had, but clearly configured for a non-lethal result. Why does the Terminator need a poorly cooked wanderer? He needs him alive.

Stranger, come out, the orc growled.

Go to hell, Yegor shouted in response, leaning out from behind the wall. - How did you even track us down?

The animal that called itself Cartilage ratted you out. We caught it, but it did not immediately begin to speak, it endured for a long time. I even respected him. That's why we arrived here so late.

Bitches, Raevsky commented on this revelation.

- Give up! You will live for a while while you speak, and if you speak a lot and openly, you will generally remain alive, and you will even have a cell with amenities.

Yeah, keep your pocket wider, Cascade cheered, a kind of desperate recklessness settled in his soul, when there’s nothing left to lose, then anything is possible. I’ll go down now and just take a shower. Are you taking me for an idiot? I put your bastards, both higher and not higher, out of mercy, I decided to let you go if you don’t come to me. But you were so stupid that you didn’t understand this. Well, that means you’ll also stay here to rot.

The roar, full of hatred and malice, coming from under the helmet was a sure sign of rage; the client went into an extreme state of rage, when the head fails and instincts take over.

Yegor raised his rifle and fired a bullet right into the orc’s helmet; he didn’t even sway, but the bullet itself flattened and fell at the gray-skinned man’s feet. This completely pissed him off. Growling furiously, he pushed off and soared over the square, flying straight into the window. Egor just managed to grab the rifle by the barrel and, swinging, hit the visor with the butt. The orc resisted, Egor seemed to hit a monolithic rock, and the rifle scattered into splinters throughout the entire hall. The Supreme One waved his hand, and Raevsky was blown away. He flew into the air and slid his back across the swollen parquet floor. The backpack partially softened the blow, only the sword, tied to it, flew to hell, rattling the iron on the floor. The breath was knocked out of Yegor, his chest hurt as if a freight train had driven into him, stars sparkled in his eyes, his storm jacket had probably turned into rags, his back and ass were a complete bruise.

Egor rose to his feet with great difficulty, he swayed, but he stood firm. The haze in my head slowly dissipated. The orc moved just one step and stood where Yegor had stood before, as if under the chimeric lurking on the ceiling. Cascade unsheathed his soul absorber.

Let’s continue, he muttered through his teeth.

Man, you are weak, pathetic, the orc growled and, throwing up the spark gap, pulled the trigger.

Hem, Raevsky howled, trying to dodge a small energy clot that rushed toward him with a flourish.

It didn't work out. His physical condition was far from ideal, and even if he had been cheerful, well-fed and completely healthy, he would still have caught everything. A blue-white sparking tracer hit him in the chest, throwing him to the floor. But Yegor didn’t feel a discharge or anything, he simply dissolved. But the middle finger of my left hand burned as if it had been scalded with boiling water. But there was no time to find out what happened to him. Him, too, was defeated, although he achieved something, the grooves from his claws were visible on the helmet and chest plate, but that was all success, Him himself screaming: Master! - flew out the window.

If you’re alive, hide, I’ll tell you when to return, Raevsky mentally ordered the chimeric.

He himself also played the role of an unconscious person. He had one last argument left - a magical dagger that could easily pierce an iron cuirass. Egor even tested it out of curiosity on one iron rod, which was on the bars in the semi-basement window of one house in a small roadside town. Although with difficulty, the blade cut it through, and it was as thick as a finger.

Yes, master, I’m fine, came the chimeric’s answer.

- Okay, wait for the order.

The orc looked at the defeated man for several seconds, after which he stomped towards Yegor, who was lying face down, and lightly kicked him in the leg. Yegor tugged at her as if she were weak-willed.

Another pathetic, insignificant, useless animal, the orc growled and, sharply grabbing his left shoulder, turned Raevsky onto his back.

Arrogance and neglect played a cruel joke on him. Egor, before turning the body over, would have fired a second shot from the arrester. It is doubtful that this would have caused harm to an already passed out person; in extreme cases, it would have fired a weaker charge, but no, the orc was sure that the client was passed out. Therefore, the supreme dagger blow was missed. Yes, it was far from ideal, and the blade pierced the thigh of the left columnar leg. Moreover, the absorber was so pumped up with souls from the black shadows, and the deceased orcs contributed well to charging, that the dagger pierced the armor like a Kalash bullet through a newspaper. Twenty centimeters of magic steel went in up to the hilt, however, it did not begin to glow; apparently, a more serious wound needed to be inflicted.

Him, come to me, Yegor mentally screamed. - Swing him with your tail and try to knock him over, or at least hold him back.

The Orc roared and recoiled, thereby widening the wound, since Cascade held tightly to the handle of the absorber, and the weapon, stained with the black blood of the Supreme, remained with him. The orc’s second mistake was that he decided to knock out Raevsky again. Raising the discharger with one hand, he tried to shoot at point-blank range, but did not take the distance into account. Egor simply slightly knocked the barrel to the side with his left hand, and a white-blue stroke struck the floor just ten centimeters from the calf, without causing any harm to Raevsky. But Yegor swung his dagger again, and the blade almost cut off the orc’s leg at the ankle. The armor, which the bullet could not scratch, easily succumbed to the magical blade from another world. Raevsky failed to completely cut off his foot; the blade reached the bone and got stuck, but the roar from under the helmet told Cascade that he was doing everything right. The orc jumped back, aiming the discharger at the man again. Now the distance was two and a half meters, but then my leg, wounded in two places, gave in. Having lost support, the highest one began to fall on his left leg. And then a huge black beast appeared in the window, which, following the order, jumped onto the orc’s back, wrapping its tail around the joint of the helmet and armor, after which, sharply pushing off from it, it pulled the orc towards the window. Yes, teamwork is a great thing. With a crash, the orc fell to the floor, his left leg was covered in black blood, and the floor was already heavily smeared with it. In addition, the spark gap flew away somewhere. The orc jerked to get up, he had muscles, and the armor had, God forbid, if he managed to send a hundred-kilogram chimera out the window, like an ordinary naughty cat. But Him had driven his long silver claws into the floor, and now, in order to tear it off, considerable effort had to be made. He held his tail, which continued to hold the joint of the armor and neck in a loop, in tension, and the orc required much more effort to stand up.

Hold him tight, Khim, Yegor ordered, rising with difficulty and hobbling towards the enemy stretched out on the floor.

He felt extremely disgusting, he had been beaten too much over the last day, he did not eat, and he hardly even drank. The hops had dissipated, but my head was splitting and floating. The ankle, which had become familiar with the claw of the late orc, shot through with pain, but compared to everything else it was a mere trifle. Barely moving his legs, coughing, and holding on to his broken ribs, Raevsky somehow made it to the supreme one lying on his back. He smelled what it smelled like. The orcs are still a strong people, Egor cut his leg well, but he not only did not pass out, but managed to pull himself together and jerked over onto his right side, then onto his chest and, resting his hands on the floor, did push-ups and tried to get up, and he almost succeeded. A grey-skinned giant, two-thirty tall, literally tore Him off along with five squares of parquet, which, now swelling like a bubble, was cracking, losing its last positions. But the chimeric, following the order, continued to strangle and fetter the orc’s actions. The Supreme One threw all his strength into trying to escape, and this was what ruined him. Raevsky jumped onto his back from a meter away, driving the gray-skinned soul absorber into the junction of the helmet and armor, where, in theory, the base of the skull should have been. The handle of the dagger glowed, receiving another powerful soul. At the last moment, the orc rose with a furious roar, throwing off Yegor, who grabbed the dagger, and now set off with him on another planned flight.

The orc grabbed his belt, pulling some kind of ribbed ball off it, but it was at that moment that his strength left him, his wounded leg twisted again, and he fell on his side. The ball fell out of his hand and flew out the window, and a moment later the house was rocked by an explosion. Plaster and some debris fell from the ceiling, but the house still stood.

Shahid, damn it, Yegor said tiredly and, somehow sitting up, looked at the chimeric, who, slightly dragging his back left paw, came up to him and poked his eerie muzzle into his shoulder. - What, is it hard?

- Yes, master, but we won.

We won, Raevsky agreed. Gren is probably laughing contagiously now, looking at us.

I don’t understand, master, Khim was puzzled, she died. But are you sure that she sees us?

These are our human superstitions, Cascade finally explained. - Like, when we die, we go to God on a cloud, and look at the living from above and rejoice for them. Well, or we end up in hell, a very unpleasant place, where our souls suffer in eternal flames, cleansing our sins. I'm not good at this, but I like to think that Grena is now watching from above, and she is pleased with our revenge. "He ran his left hand over Khim’s head and then noticed that there was no longer a greenish ring on his middle finger, but there was a rather serious burn.

For several seconds he digested the information received. The picture turned out interesting. It seems that once again Yegor managed to find something unique, a natural artifact, an altered ring with a rune of protection. Grena said that there were no artifacts on Eleria, but it turned out that not everything was known to her. The increased magical background endowed a simple ring with a rune of protection with power, and it took on exactly one attack, self-destructed when Raevsky was hit by a shot from a discharger, which should have knocked him out for a long time. The ring simply melted, at least it didn’t char the meat to the bone. Yes, he was lucky to find some wonders - an enchanted cloak, a dagger with incredible capabilities, with which he opened armor that was technologically superior to everything he had ever seen, and for many, many years. And now a disposable shield...

And then Yegor smelled the blot, for the first time he felt that it would soon open. And he understood what she was waiting for - for revenge to be accomplished. He coughed, then spat out a clot of blood, it looked like his ribs were badly broken.

- Him, let’s turn into a rat, I won’t drag you into the portal either as a dog or as a chimera.

The chimera began to slowly melt, fifteen seconds later, and at Yegor’s feet sat a hefty rat with scarlet eyes and an impressive set of teeth. Raevsky turned his head, looking for the flying sword, but it was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that caught my eye was a broken rifle, which was no longer of any value. Raevsky pulled a couple of magazines out of his pocket and threw them away. Well, he still has a pistol, maybe that will be enough, still better than the lost crossbow.

The blot appeared a meter in front of him and began to grow quickly. Egor, picking up the heavy rat, somehow got up. My ribs were in pain. If he is repaired, everything will not be so bad, but if he is thrown into a new world in this form, then, most likely, it will be Cascade’s last.

Goodbye, Eleria, he whispered and jumped into the center of the silver-covered blot.

This time the transition was not so harsh, the top and bottom did not change places. At first there was darkness, in which you couldn’t see a damn thing, and then at one fine moment an electric light pierced your eyes, and the soles of your shoes hit the iron floor. Yegor closed his eyes, then slowly opened his eyelids. Well, everything is explainable, now he has part of the key, so the blot did not spin him like crazy, and let him into another world as if it were his own. He also no longer felt pain in his broken ribs, his chest did not ache after being hit by an orc, and his leg was fine. Only I just wanted to eat incredibly. But the search for food will wait, it’s not critical, now the main thing is to understand where he ended up. Raevsky lowered the rat onto the iron floor and shook his head. He was in a short corridor, in front of him was a closed bulkhead, round, divided by a seam into two parts exactly in the center. And behind him was a huge door with a control panel, next to it hung a cheerful orange spacesuit, the kind he had seen in various science fiction films.

Fuck it, Cascade said, trying to cope with the shock. — Is it really possible that space or a planet has no atmosphere? — As always, there are more questions than answers, but this is definitely some kind of station. He looked at Him. - Do you hear anything?

No, master, responded the chimeric, changing his appearance from a rat to a dog.

Both good and bad, Raevsky summed up.

By the way, he never wondered how Him understands the languages ​​of other worlds? He was awarded this ability by default. Did the chimeric also acquire the ability when he went through the first blot with him?

Raevsky headed towards the spacesuit; it was massive, hard and heavy. It is unrealistic to use it as an everyday item. It was also very worn; three patches caught his eye. The helmet is ordinary, similar to the ones he saw on TV with the cosmonauts; Gagarin also flew in something similar. There are unfamiliar letters on the chevron on the chest, somewhat reminiscent of hieroglyphs, but they clearly are not. In some science fiction film, the language of aliens was shown this way, like in Predator. Although Raevsky reviewed them so much that he could not identify them exactly, no matter how much he strained his memory. And what's the difference? He peered closely at the inscription. Twenty seconds, and then he sees the usual Russian - Trapper Station - Bone. Well, everything is clear: Trapper is the name, Bone is the nickname of the owner or owner of the spacesuit. Most likely, he or she is a technician. But Finn didn’t say anything about aliens, he didn’t meet little white men with big black eyes, he talked about elves, he mentioned gnomes. Well, Yegor himself saw both elves and orcs, the short ones didn’t catch his eye, it was bad luck. But if Finn didn’t see aliens, this doesn’t mean that they don’t exist, maybe he just didn’t come across such worlds, because there were ants that walked upright, which means everything else is possible.

Hem, come with me, Raevsky ordered and headed towards the closed bulkhead; he definitely had nothing to do outside, so he needed to go inside.

He walked up to the door and touched the panel with his finger, it immediately responded, the screen lit up, and the tongue he had already seen ran across it. This time he read it much faster, apparently an adaptation due to the fact that he could make out what was written on the chevron. Basically, nothing interesting, the computer asked if it wanted to open the bulkhead?

Yes, Cascade said out loud, and it swung open with a barely audible hiss of hydraulics.

The doors swung in different directions, revealing a rather impressive hangar, almost empty. Several dozen massive boxes stood along the walls, there weren’t that many lamps, some of them were broken, the panels on the walls were melted in some places. The wreckage of a large robot lay on the floor, such a serious fool, about three meters high, its arms looked like grips, most likely an ordinary forklift. And next to one of the boxes lay a broken body in a gray matte jumpsuit. An ordinary person, hairstyle - a narrow strip of short silver hair from the forehead to the back of the head, temples covered with white tattoos. The left side of the head is bloody. The leg and arm are twisted at an incredible angle, the spine, judging by the crooked posture, is also broken.

Yegor carefully walked inside, trying to imagine what happened here. The picture was interesting. The robot was clearly piloted, had a cockpit, you can see the operator's chair over there. But apparently he started acting up and broke a station employee. The dead man could not shake the robot, which means that someone came and smashed the piece of iron that had gotten out of control.

What a harmonious theory, Raevsky cheered and headed towards the dead man.

It's time to search your pockets. The dead man is about ten centimeters taller, but they are similar in build, so the clothes will definitely fit Yegor. If only the boots would fit, it would be great. At the same time, he did not feel any disgust. By the way, it is completely unclear why in a previous life he would not have put on a dead man’s clothes, but here he feels nothing, the corpse is fresh, has not yet begun to decompose, and it is cool here.

Well, my friend, Cascade said under his breath, sitting down next to him, share your clothes, you don’t need them anymore, but they’ll definitely suit me.

Chapter 2

Yegor sighed resignedly, pulling out from his pocket the fragments of a clay pipe that he had taken from the corpse of the order; she did not survive the meeting with the orc. So, of all the property that was in the pockets, only the lighter given by Grena and the tobacco pouch moved into the backpack. Tattered pants from the slide, a torn windbreaker went to the far corner. The only clothes Raevsky had left were a turtleneck and ankle boots, which were holding up well so far.

Picking out the broken corpse from the overalls took about fifteen minutes, he was already numb, we had to tinker, even break another leg. The dead man's boots didn't fit him, he had a huge paw, as much as a forty-five, if Cascade, of course, guessed correctly. I didn’t take off my underwear, but I did get a thin sweater made of some synthetic material.

Pulling on his clothes, Yegor winced slightly; the overalls were unpleasantly cold on his bare bottom, but the former stuntman was not yet mature enough to pull off the underpants from a corpse. Having fastened his belt with a pistol and a dagger at the top, Yegor cast a sad glance at the fragments of the pipe. Giving up the opportunity to smoke, he sat down on one of the boxes and thought. At the moment, the most important question is - is there part of the key here or just a transit world where he was thrown for a couple of days? The second equally important question was where the station is located, in space or on a planet with an aggressive environment, and to go to the surface, a spacesuit is required? The third question is where to find something to eat? And fourth, if he gets out of this hangar, how will the locals greet him, if there is anyone here besides him. Because at such stations people know each other by sight, and if it is small, then not just by sight, but by name, and they all gather in the evening at a local club to chat and have fun. And here he definitely won’t get lost.

Master, I’m hungry, Khim suddenly said.

Raevsky stared at the servant in puzzlement. There was food in