Part 48

(VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO / Backup whee)



The shield is deactivated, but it seems like this guy isn't going to unfreeze. Or at least if he is, it might take a while. The crystal device is sticking out of the ice.



I take the device, it slides out of the sleeping Phyxx's hands easily.



It's strange, now that I really look at one of these Phyxx without it being in the process of trying to kill me... it looks familiar. Sort of comforting. Almost noble in a way.

At the very least, they don't look any more disgusting and freakish than I do.

I wonder what the reason is for so many of them to enter suspended animation for thousands of years. Was it a natural disaster? War? Or were they just tired of their current time and place and placed their bets in the far off future?

I suppose all these questions are purely academic. I have bigger things to worry about right now.

I head back toward the entrance chamber.



I check on Escher before activating the tube. At first, I think she's already dead, but she's still breathing, if only shallowly.



As I kneel next to her, she opens her eyes.

Escher: "It's too late to save me."



"Don't let Mastaba destroy all that's left of this race."

"If you are who I think you are, you won't fail."

I can't think of any way to answer her request, but I nod. I'll try my best to fulfill her last wish.



"Let me rest."

And with that, she closes her eyes and breathes her last.



The device from the sarcophagus activates the tube. I feel a strangely weightless sensation as it lifts me from the ground and sucks me to wherever it leads.

I hope that Escher finds peace in whatever afterlife she's headed towards.