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Defunct. Epic battle of neuralink
meN/Ace
This is the original story. Crazy things are happening in prehistoric Mesopotamia. The plans of the ambitious innovator, Prince Haste, are not to the liking of the current government, and, with his team of inventors, he runs from the interfluve as far as possible. Staying in the Himalayas, scientists realize everything they dreamed of. With incredible discoveries, they paved the way for their people to paradise. Haste and his companions, merge with the complete fullness of Gomeropolo and Dyki.
Defunct
Epic battle of neuralink
meN/Ace
© meN/Ace, 2021
ISBN 978-5-0053-6790-7
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
AND NOW
Dyki, Gomeropolo (logical and illogical unification of forms and formlessness, interpretation of a finite, infinite complete representation).
Final view (relative, sequential world).
Haste-Vaidah Algorithm (Fawnville1).
The above strange words are the location of what is happening. It so happened that this location cannot be explained in simple language. In the course of the plot, everything will become clear. In the meantime, there is no need to know about it.
Different pictures of outer space emerge before us. Bright galaxies, slowly floating at great distances from each other. Blue, like thick clouds, stardust. Purple fog, with red spots, from accumulated matter after the explosion from the collision of black holes. Out of all this, somehow life can arise. Or rather, she didn’t even have to appear. Like the higher intelligence, life has been here for eternity. Simply, not in the representation in which people would like to see. – It is not difficult for us to keep the maximum sequence of possible combinations. – There was a voice of emptiness. – When everything is predetermined, the necessary actions will happen by themselves in all time periods. But only in the final presentation. Infinity is unpredictable. Relativity is unknown to her. But, it can affect the sequence by scaling. These are mirrors, the reflections of which merge with reality. Let’s take a closer look at individual, incomplete frames of reference. They are characterized by such a characteristic as variability. In the universe, variability flows in one direction, in the anti-universe, in the opposite direction, but in neutral it is not. For Gomeropolo, any subsystem, for example, such a combination as the Earth, in the Cellory galaxy, is the site of all stages of variability. It can have any sequence, but lead to the same result and vice versa. Variation can be directed forward, backward, or stopped. Also, speed up, slow down or ignore. Let’s speed it up, for fun, by implementing some components.
Earth (a copy of Earth from the Milky Way), the Cellory galaxy
Eruption of the Toba volcano, 75,000 BC
In ancient times, the Earth’s flora and fauna was significantly different from today’s nature. The variety of plants and animals amazed the imagination with its richness and completeness. Unseen organisms lived in all corners of the planet. An old, rotten inconspicuous mushroom with a thick stalk, with a brown, loose and wrinkled hat, has finally collapsed. He was eaten by worms crawling out of small holes on all sides. It seems worth touching it, and it just crumbles. Large blue fern leaves sway gently in the wind. Yellow, tall flowers with petals like suckers along the entire stem are ripe for insemination. The red trees, with their curved, cocoa-like fruit, were especially marvelous. Their trunks consisted of intertwining roots stretching from the ground. In the sun, they shimmered in different colors, from red to olive. Is this exactly our planet? Real miracles were happening in the endless glade. Huge balls, made of shining tubes, finely covered with sparkles, roll on air currents. They spread their branches like ship sails against the background of the sea breeze. Like needles, they protrude their fragile sticks in all directions, and, shaking quickly, expand, emitting fluffy feathers. And in the distance, there, beyond the mountain heights, the lands were all the colors of the rainbow. The whole universe fits into this paradise. Thickening, matte, burgundy colors of bushes creeping like snakes. They seemed to be soft bags with ribbed surfaces, dancing in front of the dazzling sun. Huge mushrooms with wide black hats spat up with their spores, launching transparent balls like soap bubbles. Their sponge was not at the bottom, like in existing mushrooms, but at the top. At one point, they were interrupted and, shrinking, as if taking a breath, they repeated their attraction again. Giant, purple flowers similarly pollinated everything in the area. This magic dust was somehow dissolving into the air. And then, the air became cloudy, like on a blazing fire. It looks incredible, especially when the dust settles on the gariocenes. The Gariocene is a half plant, half inorganic substance that continually changes its shape, creating a shape that has never been repeated before. These could be emerald crystals sticking out in bundles from layered pyramids. Fluffy, gray branches with spotted bulbs instead of stems with leaves that resemble neither liquid nor tissue. This world was insanely beautiful. Plants, at the height of their diversity, were the undisputed kings of nature. It is a pity that there was no one to appreciate this beauty. The temperate summer climate, established after the Lapland cold snap, favored the development of animals and insects. But, fate decreed that it could not last long.
Clouds began to gather over the sky, dense enough lumps, like hard cotton wool. Spreading across the clear blue sky, like blueberry jam in a glass of water, this phenomenon begins to evoke feelings of apprehension, excitement and anxiety. Strange sounds began to be heard from afar. It is a whistle of wind mixed with continuous crackling. Frightened birds, gathered in one common flock, rushed away like a river. Rodents quickly burrow into their burrows, and saber-toothed tigers – Smilodons, while hiding in bewilderment in thickets of thick grass. They do not yet understand what a nightmare awaits them today. Within half an hour, the sky, along the entire horizon, finally turned black. After another ten minutes, slowly circling, ash flakes fell from the sky. They fell in gray flakes of snow, covering everything around with a thick blanket. From that moment on, an eternal night fell in South America. The sun’s rays could not break through the thickness of ash clouds that surrounded the entire planet, after a powerful volcanic eruption on the other side of the Earth. A new ice age has come. An extreme cold snap in history, which seriously influenced the evolution of nature and the animal world in general. There was a bottleneck effect. Over the next year, the population of all land creatures finally became extinct, or reduced to a minimum. People, who had settled on all continents by that time, were forced to migrate to warmer areas, near the equator. A couple of years later, they had to return to their very origins, to Africa, or perish in the barren ice lands. Once lush, heavenly lands have turned into endless cemeteries. Only black fossilized trunks remain of the trees, while the grass and shrubs are completely buried under the ash. By some miracle, only that decrepit mushroom remained intact. Ashes, somehow flew around him. His spores go far underground. They branch off endless webs and go even deeper. These fine villi are everywhere. They filled all the soil for kilometers in depth, and hundreds of kilometers in radius. Although no, thousands! For tens of thousands! Enveloping every grain of sand, and permeating them through and through, they make up a third of all the soil on Earth. But why and why are there so many of them? It turns out that these fibers connect all the mushrooms in the world with each other. Moreover, it connects them in a far from random way. These networks create energy-storing spore nodes that cooperate with each other, just like neurons in animal brains. There, underground, this network is constantly growing. Within herself, she has been exchanging information about the environment for millions of years! She is cultivating herself. Based on the extraordinary complexity of the interaction device of the mushroom network, inside itself, hypothetically, it can already be equated with the higher mind. Then, as a man was nothing more than an adapted predator. Tens of thousands of years have passed since then. Much has changed in the world. The climate has become favorable again. And life, after the thaw, seethed with new colors.
Jericha, the valley of the Bedubs and the Jewsis.
Impressive in scale, the military camp had already stood in a dry forest thicket for two days. Wild, virgin lands, free tribes, have not yet known not blood, not suffering, which will soon fall upon them as a merciless hurricane. The pain that people will have to accept, because no one is able to resist the powerful conquerors from the middle east. But, are these aliens really here for the war? Silly question, thought the Jerichan king Nahobar III. Why else bring such a huge army? If their leader is afraid of savages, aggressive tribes, and carnivorous predators, he probably would stay at home. These people are very cunning, and you cannot trust them. There, in the east, there are rumors that their civilization dominates everyone. They sent their spies to us to overthrow the government! When we caught them, they suddenly introduced themselves as ambassadors and tried to negotiate. It won’t work that way. We have no allies, and never have, and we would like to cooperate, but not unilaterally. These ignoramuses only need colonies, not allies. They are not welcome here, therefore, they will receive in full. High, stone walls surrounded the big city from all sides. They are much wider at the base than at the top. The beige square towers stretching towards the sky also narrowed, creating the shape of elongated pyramids. They had no roof. Only ledges around the perimeter to protect against siege. In cross-section, the towers were the same trapezoid as the walls. Behind this wall, there was another, second protective wall. It stretched along a similar, oval perimeter, with an indent of thirty meters. An unprecedented army at that time began urgent mobilization. Near the walls of Jericha, various divisions of ten thousand people were lined up. But the warriors were not going to defend themselves. They were going to attack. Near the city, half of the army remained to reap the order. The second half, of about five thousand people, just twenty minutes later, in the composition of the infantry and horsemen, set off forward to the nearest camps of the uninvited guests who had lingered on these lands. Crossing countless desert dunes, in the night, the troops reached a small dry lake, in the place of which there was a small vegetation. There, behind the small, dry trees, side by side, stood tightly stretched large rag tents. They spread over a fairly extensive area, covering the area of the entire oasis. Smoke from dying fires was coming from everywhere. – Barbarians! And these people promised us peace. – Seeing firsthand the enemy concentration, the commander of the rifle squad became angry. – In one we were lucky. Our expectations have come true. Enemies are asleep, which means that now is the most convenient moment to attack. – He waved his hand, showing the rest of the detachments to go into the encirclement. But, on their way, there were two guards, talking about something with enthusiasm to each other. They brandished strange, glowing swords. Like multi-colored, diode lamps are built right into their blades. Such a wonderful weapon, the soldiers had never seen before. However, due to their glow, the blades of the guards gave them away. Having loaded the poisoned needles into long reed tubes, the soldiers blew into them and hit them right in the necks, who did not understand anything, to both simpletons. The detachments, on the other hand, could not successfully neutralize the sentries. There were serious guys who listened to every rustle. One of them noticed movements, peering into the dark bushes, and reported something to his partner. Without giving notice, he went to the nearest tent. Then, he left it, and entered another, then the third, the fourth… In complete silence, he began to go around all the tents in turn, and this is rather strange. No one left these tents, no one announced the alarm. On the other hand, the commanders of the local troublemakers began to worry. Not having time to completely take the camp in the ring, it was decided to immediately attack the enemy, so as not to give them more than a second of time. The attack began from the longitudinal strip of the camp. The archers ran out, lit the steles, and the first thing they did was to destroy all the food. Food, horses, camels, barns, tools, catapults and other objects. On the same side, infantrymen ran out, in steel helmets and vests, armed with long spears. They ran into the tents and quickly stabbed the soldiers who had already woken up, but had not yet had time to figure out anything. On the other hand, meanwhile, archers fired at the enemies running out of their tents. Under the furious cries of their leaders, the enemies, on the move, right in the run, lined up in columns, and dispersed on the battlefield. Some of the tents, closer to the center, opened and guns rolled out from there. With powerful shots, they fired into the line of attack, trying to frighten the enemy away rather than kill. Their soldiers looked completely unbecoming of the ancient warriors who had recently mastered iron. Shining, silvery light armor that completely covers their bodies. They made them look like medieval knights. However, most of the warriors did not have time to put on protection, and fought almost naked.
One of their commanders ran towards an unremarkable, detached tent. She stood separately, because around her, there was a whole crowd of guards, in several rows. They watched the battle, but did not take part in it. Having reached the tent, cutting several bedubs on his way, he pulled on the crosspiece, the hilt of his mighty blade with a bulging blade, which seemed to consist of smoke. From the crosspiece, as if a second handle had come out, merged with the first. It had round, slightly convex iron buttons. It looks like some kind of control panel. He poked the buttons and put the handle to his ear. Shouting something in an incomprehensible, Nahmaut language, he pushed the second handle back into the crosspiece. At the same moment, several people leave the guarded ward, if they can be called that. They were wearing too extraordinary costumes, or armor that terrified and delighted at the same time. Among these disguised characters, only two stood without helmets. For a while, they silently looked around, not believing what was happening. Finally, one of those without a helmet slowly walked forward. The others all followed him.
«I hope I don’t have to fight?» He asked a nearby warrior who looked like a cyborg from the future.
– No, my lord, – he put on his head an incredible helmet in its performance, which is even difficult to describe. «I swear on my life, they won’t even notice you. – One side of his magic helmet, as if melted and flowed, stretching out in intricate contours with sharpened needles in the side. The slightly parted mouth contorted into a triangle, widening to one side, as if mocking. On the other hand, there were, red, hard bubbles growing on top of each other, from the temple to the very jaw. White eyes of various shapes, and bulging purple, branching stripes resembled veins, as if in animation, they moved across the entire surface of the helmet. From both hands of the unique warrior, four blades jumped out, around the wrist, on each side. They were attached to the sleeves of this strange, hard material that looked more like plastic or glass than iron. These were not just knights, but the personal guard of King Shadakh. His most unsurpassed in the martial art of war. Among these handsome men, it seems, there were even women. One could guess from the proportions of their bodies. As computer game characters, disguised in voluminous fully covered solid suits, some had significant tapering in the waist, more characteristic chest protrusions, and wide hips. These slender chickens would look great in cinematography, but not in a real carnage. Therefore, their demonstration, in fact, is only a demonstration. Shadakh does not allow them to participate in fierce battles, and more often, they are in the rear, together with the king, observing what is happening from the side. But this does not mean at all that the women in armor were simply disguised concubines. They perfectly mastered the sword and small arms. In battle, hardened by training, the ladies could compete with any of Shelber’s ordinary soldiers. The rest of the warriors of this elite squad are truly the greatest masters who have trained all their lives, from birth. Thirsty for blood, they entered the battlefield to once again show what they are capable of. Shredding enemies to pieces, they tried not to move far away from their leader. In the midst of the battle, one of these warriors, ten men, was surrounded on all sides. Furiously defending himself from the spears flying at him, he still missed a stab in the back. But, this blow did not defeat him. From the blow, only the tip of the spear broke. Spinning around, he shook his hands down, and four more blades extended in a similar fashion to the four blades. They crawled out of the hand, then stretched forward. The tips of all the blades joined together like fingers and created small, bright balls. Continuing to beat the badubs, his power increased tenfold. These balls generated electrical discharges, which, when touched, instantly hit the enemy, throwing their bodies back several meters. Without wearing a helmet, following his bodyguards, Shadakh finished off crippled enemies. The battle dragged on for two hours. This time was enough for the Bedubs and Jews to understand who they had contacted. The retreating Jerichans lost their command and rushed scatteringly. The ruthless guards of Shadakh pierced the bodies of enemies like helpless little children. One of the last soldiers, crawling backwards, begged loudly for mercy. To which the warrior, in fantastic armor, silently threw off his iron helmet. He grabbed his head like a ball and lifted his whole body for it, putting the poor man on his knees. Then, four, protruding on the sides of the blade, sharply closed, and cut the skull, like an apple, into four equal shares.
ABDICATION of the UNCROWNED KING
In the distant, distant times, when the world capital Vayelon was a small tree in the Rohvem Valley, and Shelber, the isolated Nahmau tribes reached unprecedented heights in development. These are the only tribes of Mesopotamia that are not descendants of the Natufian culture, and North African, and any other alien cultures. They belong to the unheard of Veliriam culture in northeastern Europe. They had their own, built from scratch, a language whose writing is not like any other writing in the world. Is that, on some symbols of Tifinagh. Want to know what characters? A circle. Only. In their writing, only combinations of large and small circles resembling atoms were used in orbit. Minimum, there could be one not large circle, on the verge of one large circle, maximum – four. They could only take positions at 90 and 45 degrees. They had 11 vowels and 19 consonants. And, also, 30 syllables. Each syllable, in writing, was a repetition of all letters, only, with a circle in the middle, like the nucleus of an atom. Most of the syllables were also consonant. Sometimes, they consisted of only one consonant, and could even denote a whole word. For example, the syllable «khkhp», meaning uncertain agreement. The semantic message, something like, «I think differently, but I have to agree.» When pronouncing this syllable, instead of «h», «a» is heard. It is quite difficult to reproduce this, therefore, their speech gave rise to many dialects that are not similar to each other, like the Osiris. The Osiris language, by the way, can be called the progenitor of the Semitic language group. And, unfortunately, the Nahmau language has completely sunk into oblivion. Not to say that he was expressively beautiful in sound, but very original, and could express the deepest feelings in one word, where in modern languages you have to write a couple of sentences. The abundance of consonant sounds, and the length of the letter «h», the Nahmau themselves explained by the fact that their ancestors, who lived in the far north, suffered from sinusitis. It turns out such a ratchet speech, as if the nose is stuffed up. Also, they had their own count (hundred-fold frame of reference), which reduced the duration of a second, almost in half, and much more. They left behind a deep trace that simply disappeared in an instant. Despite the complete disappearance of the physical heritage, they still managed to change the history of all living things. This was indicated by a lot of evidence and artifacts of that era. Ultimately, their sudden disappearance was as mysterious as their appearance. The deeds of the greatest nahmau – Selim Svurt, put him above the gods. However, neither the date of birth, nor the place of birth, nor the date of death, nor the place of death, even his own governors do not know. So did he ever exist at all? Or is it just a specially invented deity? Two hundred years later, only half of the Nahmau themselves believed in its real existence. The rest do not consider Selim Svurt to be who he is being given out. His identity is documented, and there is no doubt about his existence. Doubts creep into his deeds. All of his works refer to the «drugged knights of Shelber», the scientific committee under his father Shadakh, and other circumstances. However, even the wise Nahmau admit that there was the last prince in their family who could turn our world into an illusion. One day, he allegedly met a foreigner. The one who gave him absolute knowledge. According to legend, a wanderer named Grul came from the valley of Eridu, later enslaved by the treacherous king Shadakh. In that valley, lived mostly savages, and small tribes of their fellow Nahmau, who surrendered without a fight. A sick man of unknown origin traveled through the lands of Mesopotamia, enlightening the leaders of wild tribes. He had a companion – his sister and concurrent mistress. This woman had a genetic breakdown and stopped aging. Then, as from constant incest from generation to generation, everyone in their family suffered from Progeria – premature aging. Trying to find the key to his sister’s immortality, hoping to rid himself of the curse, the ingenious Grul began to study the genetics of her body. And he made a lot of scientific discoveries on the way to his goal. Having learned the basics of the chemical and biological structure of DNA chains, stem cells, proteins and amino acids, at about the age of twenty, he began to model new molecular bonds. It seems impossible to solve such problems without using computer technology. Therefore, according to legend, although the place of origin of the wandering sage is not indicated, there is an assumption that he came on a mission from another world, and from another planet. Having recovered from his illness, the almighty sorcerer did not stop. Further, he single-handedly developed self-replicating artificial cells, from which he modeled an exact copy of his perfect organism, immediately allowing his clone to get rid of the decrepit, sick original. In a new image, he continued to improve the world around him, reaching the very origins of the universe.
Having written down his knowledge in three books, he distributed them to the most chaste leaders of that time. Arkhva is the king of the Osiris of Giza, Dagshe is the leader of one of the most mysterious and isolated civilizations of the Levrimites, the Eridu Valley, in Iran, and Selim is the crown prince of Nahmau. After the death of these individuals, all the books were lost without a trace, except for one. In addition to the book of Selim Svurt, which he safely hid in the most inaccessible corners of the Shelber castle. From time to time, attempts were made on the book. Someone wanted to destroy it, seeing in it the prescription of the apocalypse, someone just wanted to reveal the secrets of its content. One way or another, one day, she had to be secretly transported to the underground, laboratory catacombs of Vayelon. Gruel disappeared just as suddenly and mysteriously. Therefore, practically no one believed in its very existence. His eternally young sister died from the bite of a poisonous spider, fleeing from the pursuit of the «intoxicated guards of Shadakh» (later became better known as the «immortal phantoms of Saltorin»). But, all the fun started ahead. After his departure, the policy of the great Svurt finally took over the world, penetrating so deeply into all spheres of life that people practically began to go crazy.
Reconstruction of the Shelber castle, 8008 BC
Gloomy, golden columns, like the hall itself, are shrouded in shadows. And only small yellow stripes fall to the floor from long, narrow windows, with thick, dull glass. The sun’s rays illuminate the flying fine dust and barely noticeable details of the interior of the throne room of the observation tower. This tower protrudes from a huge beige building of a mesmerizing gray castle. A beautiful carpet with embroidered engraving is spread along the entire hall. There is a majestic armchair, the back of which is shrouded in blue flame, like a waterfall flowing upwards, merging with darkness. It quickly distorts and changes shape. With a piercing, eerie creak, opposite the magic throne, the gate to the balcony swung open. A man in extraordinary wavy armor, on which various solid formations flowed in waves. Like a kaleidoscope, they created wonderful symmetrical shapes. Sharpening crystals near the shoulders, convex squares on the lower back, gradually transforming into polygons, then into stars, into petals and strange polyhedra. Standing with his back to the hall, he slowly let go of the stone handles in the form of flying kites. He also slowly approached the white, thick railing, arcing around the stone floor, decorated with mosaics of square slabs of various sizes. The heels on his rigid, similarly wavy, fluid shoes glittered gold. They were hollow, of thin walls, decorated with patterns of various curling stripes. With his left hand, he grabbed the edge of the curb. His pale, thin fingers are wearing large, beautiful rings. Bending over the abyss, he looked down. With his right hand, he took a prismatic device, similar to binoculars, hanging around his neck, and brought it close to his eyes.
There, from below, work was in full swing. To the beat of drums and the sounds of trumpeters, a huge army of slaves twisted and twisted various, incomprehensible mechanisms. These are huge steel gears that raise a whole range of different elevators to different heights for each tower. Suddenly, there was a deafening grinding sound. On the rails, spiraling up around one of the buildings, a miraculous mechanism is rolling, reminiscent of a carriage with two hydraulic units, at the ends of which giant saw blades are fixed, which cut something right into the wall of the building. Sparks flew tens of meters away. This mobile sawmill was operated by some mutant sitting inside a carriage. This is one of the civil engineers. In silver, stylish armor, dressed like a knight of the Middle Ages, his equally shiny head was wrapped in foil. His face is completely covered with dents and irregularities, bumps and microcracks, and his cheekbones, brow ridges and chin protruded unnaturally strongly. Blue lips and bloodshot eyes twitched constantly. He firmly held on to the control levers with both hands, using the power steering, turning the three-meter discs in the desired direction. But dozens of other people below were responsible for lifting this car up. With the help of physical strength, they twisted a strange coil, with a long shaft standing across it, like a carousel. This shaft grabbed a whole chain of gears, which eventually caught the wheels of the rolling stock. Huge platforms moved between buildings. The stone blocks, the size of a two-story house, were pulled by giant, furry mammoth-like animals. Tightened ropes, over the top of one of the towers, stretched into the hands of the harnessed people. They, like mammoths, are wearing fetters that line them up in an even formation of three columns. Pulling the cables as they count, they flatten the heavily tilted tower, around which are built wooden bridges and many gear mechanisms. They were shouting into the loudspeaker up there. It was they who gave the bill to the pulling people from below. And, at the moment of the jerk, when the tower rises slightly, the people at the top sharply insert the levers into an incomprehensible device, such as a jack, fixed between the gears. This was done so that the structure would not fall back to its side. Although, if you look closely, this tower is not broken. It was originally built with the existing curvature, in combination with other skyscrapers, twisting at different angles. These bold design and architecture decisions are not realistic. They defy the laws of physics, and this excites the imagination. Then why do you need to make any changes, fix something? Perhaps the builders want to bring this style to perfection or, to present it in a slightly different way, more to their liking.
People’s feet slide over the smooth concrete that has been laid throughout the surrounding area. They fall to their knees, trying to catch their breath and catch their breath, as a hellish blow from a fiery whip immediately flies in the back. A frightening tall creature that closely monitors the work. They are called caretakers or overseers. Monsters, devoid of even human form. In black robes and glossy red steel vests, ribbed tails protruded from the back like lizards. The heads are terribly deformed. The top of the skull is extended forward, and the round jaw merges with the neck. Their mouths are tightly sewn up with thick threads, and holes are ripped open in their throats, into which are inserted jaw-holders with teeth curved downward like claws. Bald, gray heads and completely black, slightly sunken, as if filled with ink eyes. And the long legs are tightly bound with iron on all sides.
– Push! Push! – the monster growls choking. Another caretaker tapped him on the shoulder, pointing up. Throwing its head against the main tower of the tallest building, the creature whined even louder. – Selim is out!! He’s looking at us!! Work lazy, until I fry you. «He began to beat all the servants in order with his long fiery whip».
– I see him for the first time in two years, – his colleague looks up with admiration.
«And I only saw him once,» he answered, interrupting from the beatings. – Five years ago, in the village of Doeh.
– What is he doing? – the second warden interrupted him.
Lowering his lens device, leaving it hanging around his neck, attached to a leather belt, continuing to stand on the balcony in the same place, this guy slowly removed what looked like a crown from his head. His face did not appear from under the crown. On his head is wearing a frightening, stone mask, with twisted large, same stone eyes, or rather one right eye, the incision of which goes somewhere at forty-five degrees. This facial asymmetry was a little creepy, but not scary. Revealingly raising above the head this wonderful, in-depth, frame, like a helmet covering the entire head, made of tubules bent by petals connected to each other. The bottom is gold, and the top is silver, with large gems sharpened upward, green rubies in the center, and red diamonds on the sides. Carefully leaning the crown to his chest, without thinking twice, he silently threw it down. Thus, publicly renounced power in the Shelber Valley. Since that day, no one has seen Selim Svurt again.
THE LEGEND of KING AND SORCERER
Archaeological finds make up only a small part of what lies beneath the soil. Most of the artifacts from the distant past remain undiscovered. Some of them have already disappeared without a trace. Researchers from different countries, for several centuries, have been trying to unravel the cryptograms of the first civilizations. Modern historians cannot go back in time and write down real facts without distortion. Indeed, as practice shows, several thousand years ago, when the first human communities were born, there were no professional journalists, historians and philosophers. The manuscripts of those times did not carry reliable information on the existing way of life and the development of people. What is the point of believing the cuneiforms of ancient tribes, when they contradict themselves in many texts. It is easy to be misled when great figures are called gods and all scientific achievements are called magic gifts. Religious temples are named after strong tribes, and fertile lands were considered the tricks of lazy hunters who fertilized the ground with the remains of their prey around their homes.
Tigris River, May 23
The night was bright today. Under the light of the moon, the hunters carefully peered into the depths of the forest. Complete silence. Only from time to time were the sounds of crickets, the howling of wolves and the rumbling of owls. This place is full of animals. The Shelber Valley is the most fertile land in Mesopotamia, and in the whole world. (Shelber in Nahman means rich.) Moreover, it is forbidden to hunt in this place. This territory is an inviolable reserve. Only elders and governors can move freely here. Five young, handsome, very similar to each other, dark-skinned men stood in a small, oblong, trench-like depression. They were groomed like modern people. Smoothly trimmed black stubble, and some have beards. Stylish hairstyles, with hair slicked to the side, and neatly cut along the contour. They are members of the Nahmau royal families. Once again, they secretly escaped from the castle to take a break from the hustle and bustle of their entourage. A light breeze in pairs makes tall grass rustle. It smells very fresh and pleasant here. It is now harvest season. The fields are full of blooming vegetation. Naturally, where there is a lot of food, there is also a lot of game. Seth and Hora from Rohvem came to visit their brothers. They were considered the most talented people of the «upper kingdom». Young, hot and ambitious people have a lot to talk about. Boast of the harvest, architecture, weapons and clothing, as well as make many large transactions for the sale of pharmaceuticals, Sumerian and Sabarian cities, for the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Tigris River, succinctly inscribing the structure into the interior of the fortress walls of the ancient castle of Shelber. When the kings cannot agree, their children take over. Clean heads not clogged with politics know how to compromise.
Prince Selim’s eyes shine like lights in the dark. Frozen in place, he looks with a smile at the border of the forest, as if at this second, a herd of wild boars will run out of there. In fact, he didn’t even think about hunting. His spear lay near the tree, the crossbow was tightly pulled behind his back in a leather case, and he left the dagger near the fire, a kilometer away, on the very bank of the river. All his thoughts were about how to properly dig water channels in this place, for the quick transportation of iron ore and oil products to his city. Hora’s older brother distracted him from his thoughts.
– There, something is moving, – he pointed to the left side of the line of the forest. – Something big. Now let’s watch a little, and come closer, – he said almost in a whisper.
«The beast is too far away, and it looks like it’s not alone, you don’t want to miss them,» Seth said in an undertone. «You’re not a hunter. We must get closer, the main thing is not to scare away. You, stay here, – waving his hand to the men to his left, he silently jumped out of the pit. – Come with me, Svurt. – Shaking his head, burning with excitement, Seth called him. – Let’s see if we can do something.
Without thinking twice, in anticipation, Selim crawled out after him.
«Damn it,» he froze for a moment. – I forgot my spear. – He, in response, silently shook his head.
– Get your crossbow. Suddenly it is a predator. I can’t do it alone.
«Okay, okay…» Taking out the gun case from behind, the young man bulged into the sky. – Two moons? How is this possible?
– What? – Wrinkling his face in displeasure, Seth looked up. – Where did you see the second one? – sighing, he expects a catch from a friend.
– She disappeared. I swear, for a moment, there were two balls in the sky. It didn’t seem to me. It was only a couple of seconds, but I clearly saw this moon, and next to it, a little to the right, the same yellow, the same size.
– Aren’t you drunk, my brother, – Seth grinned and, squinting, directed his gaze into the darkness of the forest.
Suddenly, the trees crackled straight ahead. Three other comrades also noticed this and immediately jumped out of the pit. The distant cries of the lambs rang out. Wolves ran out of the forest. Tails between their legs, they whined softly, and scattered in different directions. Panthers run out after them. Just as frightened, their ears flattened, they seem not to notice the people standing in front of them.
– And who are they so scared of? – Svurt muttered to himself under his breath, and aimed his crossbow in front of him. Together with his friends, he slowly crept up to the forest. Approaching the first trees, the guys carefully peered into the darkness. The unintelligible details of the bushes seemed like living things. Suddenly, a flock of birds flies out from above, making Horus flinch.
– This is a cursed forest! – his nerves could not stand it. – Let’s go back to the city, that’s enough adventure for me.
«Don’t you dare curse my forest,» Selim replied indignantly. – I am the owner of these lands. I have lived here for a very long time, and I know that it is safe here. – He entered the thicket and lit some kind of pipe, from below on a crossbow. With a dim, white light, she illuminated just a couple of meters in front of him. Well, at least something. Suddenly there was another loud crunch from the side. Turning sharply, Svurt took aim in the direction of the sounds. Then he quickly pulled his free hand on his wide honeycomb bracelet and it stretched out in segments to the very shoulder. Then, thrusting his hand under his shirt, he scratched in the chest area and armor enveloped his entire body under his clothes. A mechanical, folding suit turned him into a flamboyant warrior. Holding his breath, Selim moved forward. My heart began to beat quickly in my chest. Finally, an image of two people appeared in his eyes.
«Stop,» said an unknown voice. A strange man in a long robe and draped hood, he himself went to meet the prince. «Please don’t kill us,» a male voice continues with an unfamiliar accent.
– Come on out of here quickly. So I can see you! – raising his hands, palms forward, the stranger went out to his comrades. – You too! – he waved the crossbow, taking aim at the second, in the same robe, a man. – You are lucky that you nahmau, – stopping behind them, Svurt lowered his weapon. «Otherwise, I would immediately kill you like wild animals. And so, you will live to see tomorrow. Tomorrow you will be sentenced to death for crossing the forbidden territory of Shelber.
– But, we did not know that these territories are closed. There are no markings or fences here.
– Don’t be smart! – Dolmi, Selim’s cousin, approached him point-blank. On him, a similar miracle of armor was already deployed, with strongly protruding shoulders and covering completely the body and even part of the head. – Everyone in the district knows where you can walk and where you can’t meddle! Even if you are foreigners, this does not absolve you of responsibility. And take off your hood when I’m talking to you! Before you there are five heirs of two kingdoms, spoiled!
«I beg your pardon if I seemed rude,» the stranger removed his cape from his head. The second, behind him, also showed a face. It was a woman, young or not, in the dark it is not clear. It can only be seen that she is thin. The man is noticeably mature, also thin, but rather tall, strong and wiry. Can easily be dangerous. «I was looking for my sister,» the stranger began to make excuses. «We are heading from Eridu to Jericha with an educational mission. Also, we need the seed of a healthy man to fertilize my sister. Her years are passing, and we need a continuation of the family.
– Show your little sister closer, – the bearded man grinned, – maybe I can render her such a service.
– We’ll see. She is very tired now. During the last rest, she went to pick mushrooms and lost her way. I was looking for her all day and we, just recently, met here.
«Sounds believable,» the bearded man sniffed.
– Did you walk the mushroom trails? – Svurt looks from under his brows, frowning. – There are no edible mushrooms here. There is only death. Alluring and frightening.
– That’s it. What kind of mission do you have, «Seth asks without much curiosity. – Judging by this, there is nothing to teach us, since you went west to the Jews. The path is not close, of course, and how much do they pay you?
– We don’t need a fee. It’s free. This is charity.
– No, well, have you heard this beggar? Hora laughed. – Look at yourself. Well, what an idiot you have to be to walk barefoot half the world and not ask for a penny.
«Take them to the horses,» Selim said calmly to Set. – Now we will take them to the castle, and tomorrow morning, I will personally talk to them. If they don’t lie, I will let them go. If they lied, then I will publicly feed them to my beloved lions. And I will go while I check if they have awakened the evil sleeping with eternal sleep in the forest of the dead, a couple of kilometers north of this thicket. Don’t wait for me.
– What are you talking about? Hora approached him in bewilderment. «Recently, you said not to call your forest damned, but now you declare that evil lurks there.
– Keep it simple, buddy. I just went to shit.
Laughing at their friend, the men moved towards the river, taking with them two strangers. There, their horses and tent were standing by the fire. The princes treated the prisoners not like criminals, but with respect and understanding. This was affected by their good upbringing. Early in the morning, when the first rays of the sun had not yet passed through the walls of the majestic castle. The son of King Shadakh – young Selim, temporarily replacing his father, the ruler of Shelber, while he went on a campaign, with his retinue turned into narrow streets between giant towers. People who got in his way fell to their knees, or simply covered their faces with their hands, not believing their eyes. One of his stern, elegant appearance discouraged those around him. As if from the future, its protective frame shone in different colors. Stopping at a long stone wall, he exponentially clenched his fist, raised hand, signaling his bodyguards – the invulnerable guards Shadakh, to stop. Approaching the thick bars of the iron grating, he raised one eyebrow in bewilderment and grinned.
– Who put you here? – he asks two strangers in torn dresses, sleeping on top of each other in an embrace.
– My lord, – came from behind a pleasant, clear intonation of one of the guards, in fantastically beautiful, silver-blue armor made of incomprehensible material. – Maybe you need the ones in the next cell? He asked in a quiet, ringing voice. Slowly, approaching the next cage, Svurt froze in bewilderment:
«No, they weren’t dressed like that,» he said.
– But, over the past day, only two street cameras were occupied. Those brought by your brothers were seated here.
«Yes, yes, my lord. He speaks correctly. – A man of about fifty came up to the fence. He is wearing expensive clothes. A blue checkered caftan, like a short cloak, with a slit in the back, yellow patterns and stripes on the chest. Shiny, jeweled shoes with elongated, pointed toes. A woman in a white short dress with an unbuttoned collar came up with him. She was not just thin, as it seemed yesterday, but very slim and curvy. On her feet are very strange white shoes made of solid fabric. They were high-soled sneakers with red laces. – Your hotel is so-so, – the stranger smiled. – But, I’ve been to places and worse. «Only now, by his voice, did Selim recognize him as yesterday’s wanderer. Once again, carefully examining the prisoners from head to toe, he turned in displeasure to his guard:
– Who changed them? And for what?
– They will not give you an answer to this question, my young boy, – the wanderer took hold of the bars with both hands. – How much time is left before the verdict? He stroked his short gray hair with his right hand.
– I don’t know. Maybe… you won’t have a verdict.
– This castle, – the wanderer with admiration examines the blurry buildings seen in the distance, fused with each other. – It was not built by you.
«How do you know,» Svurt came close to him.
– Oh, I know everything. This castle was not built by people. He raised his head contentedly. – Yesterday you were so excited when I said that we were picking mushrooms. And when everyone was gone, you went to check if we had picked at least one fungus. I know why entry into that forest is prohibited. It’s not all right there and you know it. You have too many secrets, and if ordinary nahmau find out about them, Shelber’s power will fall.
– A curse was sent to our castle. Every year, it collapses on its own. And every year we restore it. Over and over again, my grandfather and my father have lived here their whole lives. They could not understand this pattern. Towers bend and change their shape. We consider this to be the curse of the Osiris from North Africa and Jericha (a city in Israel on the site of the future Jericho). My grandfather and father slaughtered these peoples with particular fury. Like the barbarians, they went on military campaigns and conquered distant lands for the purpose of profit. My grandfather did not return from one of these trips to the east. He died about sixteen years ago. My father should have returned from the west a month ago, but there is no news of him. The innocent Sumerian peoples whom they made to suffer by enslaving them. The rebellious Sabarian peoples, which almost completely died out due to the cruelty and oppression of the Nahmaut kings. We call them monkeys, savages. But, they are not as stupid as they seem. They have bewitched us and the Rohvem Valley. I have no idea how to remove this corruption, but I will do everything to atone for the guilt of the nahmau before other peoples.
«I don’t need your revelations, kid,» the stranger shook his head, narrowing his eyes slyly. – Nobody sent damage to you. This is self-hypnosis. This castle is not broken, it is simply not completed. Its construction should be completed by those who started. Do they just want it? The anomaly will not stop here, it will increase every day. I see that you are an immaculate soul. I am ready to help you.
«I didn’t ask for your help, old man. – Svurt drew attention to the woman, carefully examining her gold ring. – Did she swallow her tongue?
– She’s wild. Crazy. Doesn’t know the Nahmau language. I took it away from a bear on the river bank as a baby.
– Too sexy for a savage. How old is she? She is well-groomed like from a wealthy family, don’t powder my head.
«Okay, just kidding, this is my cousin,» he glanced at her with his eyes. The woman was distracted and looked at her fellow tribesman, then at Selim. Proudly lifting her head, coquettishly approaching the grate, she slowly licked a thick iron bar along the way. Then, she approached Svurt as close as possible, pressing her whole body against the pipes:
– WOF WOF!! She growled unexpectedly loudly. Frightened, the young man jumped back, reflexively, placing his hand on the hilt of his dagger. The woman laughed. «He seems to like me,» she said to her brother.
– What are you doing? – the wanderer pushed her back slightly. – In fact, she has an injury. Seventeen years ago, she was brutally raped by barbarians from the west. She was no longer a virgin, but one of the best girls of the tribe, it was hard not to notice her. Burning our village to the ground, the soldiers fished it out, tore up her clothes, and began to mock her. Then their commander came and dispersed them. Delighted, she thanked him. But, in vain. He took her to the house and raped her too. However, it’s good that our man was there, hiding behind the wall. With a stab in the back, he stabbed the leader of these bastards. As it turned out later, he was a major military leader. After his death, the invading army turned back, and since then did not set foot on our lands for a long time.
– This, of course, is very interesting, but let him first let us out, then continue to tell your stories, – the girl interrupted him with a serious look, apparently not wanting him to talk about her.
«Seventeen years ago, was she no longer a virgin? So how old are you now? – in bewilderment, Selim approached again. «She looks twenty years old.
«She is eleven years older than me. I’m twenty-three, she’s thirty-four. Our tribe is very small. Just a few families. Due to constant incest, hormonal failure occurred in our family. For the third generation, we suffer from Progeria. But Carney’s disease somehow worked in the opposite direction. Now she is the oldest representative of our people. On average, we live twenty-five to twenty-seven years. If we’re lucky, we’ll live to be thirty. It looks like it will be about ninety years old. But I no longer worry about death. I managed to recover. And, I won’t grow old anymore. The mutation of genes affected not only in the negative direction. It also influenced intelligence, the way of thinking. During my not very long life, I have created a great many useful things to which you have to go for thousands of years. But, the main thing is not even that. I am standing now, communicating with you through this cage, but I can easily get out of here. And, with a snap of your finger, destroy this whole castle. As he speaks, Karnay grabbed the smooth iron pipe of the grating with one hand and began to rub it with quick movements. With her other hand, she slowly lifted her dress from the side of her hip. Her slender legs made the prince pay attention to them. Above the knees, she is wearing black ribbons embroidered with patterns, like stockings, tight-fitting legs. She fiddled with her eyebrows and pulled her lips slightly, making them plump. Her face is smooth, natural. No makeup and wavy hair styled at the back secured with a white comb.
– Are you flirting with me? – unable to bear it, said Selim.
– Me not! – the girl quickly cut off her hands, standing in the starting position.
– Let them out! – Svurt turned to the guard. One of the knights approached the stone partition between the chambers and pressed on one of the bricks, then on the other, just below and to the right of the first. And then, he pulled out the third, leftmost, top brick. Something clicked, and the iron bars, one by one, quickly rooted into the ground. – What is your name, wanderer? – Finally he asked the name of the gray-haired man in the caftan.
«Call me Grul.» Smiling, he walked out into a narrow street, his sister following him.
– I have no time to talk more with you. You say you can help remove the curse from the castle and forests. So come on, help, or you are a crook posing as a great sorcerer.
«If I’m a swindler, how can you explain this?» He thrust his hand into his silk caftan and pulled out a large book, trimmed with red fringe. With silver upholstery around the edges and a convex blue planet in the middle. The entire cover of the book consisted of three-dimensional mathematical figures. – This is a book without a title. I have three copies. One I can give to you. But, there is a small problem. It is written in the most difficult language, Gomeropoles, of my little tribe. It is a dynamic language and the words are not static here. But, whoever understands the text, the reward will be generous. – He opened the book somewhere in the middle, slowly leafing through thick, wonderful pages, as if made of transparent plastic or barely bending silicone. The embossed gold letters were very small but legible. The text is really very strange. It was immediately apparent that the symbols were scattered chaotically. Either they rolled into a spiral in circles, or they were arranged in straight lines, self-intersecting rows and columns at different angles. Otherwise, nothing surprising, just unfamiliar hieroglyphs.
– Survival instructions? Or the philosophy of the gods? – With irony he stretched out his hand for the book. – Whatever nonsense is written there, I like the way it is sewn. Colorfully, elegantly. We did our best. Taking the book in his hands, he patted it hard. «I’ll put it on the shelf in the throne room in my round wine rack. I will show drunken priests and governors on holidays. Are there any pictures?
Frowning with a serious face, Carney stood right in front of him.
– Hey, if you don’t need this book, pass it on to someone who is interested in it. If you knew what information is there, you would create a whole library of copies of this text.
