The Palace of Death

Chapter 4

It took Ank only a few seconds to wake up. When she did, she was met with something unusual. Instead of the usual one image displayed in her sight, she appeared to have several thousand tiny versions of the Palace's interior in her sight. All of them had a slight red tint.

As she woke up, she looked at her hands. Or at least, what were now her hands.

Instead of the usual fur-covered paw, these hands were covered with purple skin. They had three fingers ending in sharp claws.

They were Areex's hands.

Areex woke up shortly afterwards. They noticed the exact opposite of what Ank had noticed.

Ank attempted to speak through Areex's vocal cords but all that came out was a sort of clicking. That's when she remembered how Areex's vocoder worked.

"You know Areex, your body has to be the oddest one I've been in. And I took part in a mindjump with a Tythonian once. I spent two months in that body. At first it was exhilarating but after a while being a two-ton blob of protoplasm loses its appeal"
Areex seemed to be mute, however, they very quickly spoke up in a raspy voice. "I share the same sentiment. I am not used to having this much weight on my body"

"You know I could break your jaw for saying that if you didn't have my jaw"

"And there's these feelings of... It's very hard to explain but I want to... Oh god, is that what you are all so enticed by? To have another of your species... Inside of you?"

"Mostly yeah" replied Ank

"I will definitely remember this. Very well. The memory is already forming"

"If you're lucky, you'll do something you'll remember even better. Just make sure not to damage my body once you do it"

"Hopefully we manage to swap back before then"

That was when the cause of the swap shot out red lasers from its eyes. Ank and Areex managed to dodge them.

"I'D PREFER IF I HAD MY OWN BODY WHILE BEING SHOT AT!" yelled Ank as a laser sailed past her - causing a sizable dent in the wall.

"The thought is mutual!" yelled Areex. "We've got to stop that thing!"

That was when Aquanghazi grabbed the nearest heavy object - a book of poetry by Agurnan poet Ehkel Sotah - and brought it down on the cylindrical object.

It smashed - the eyes shattering and the body crumpling. Almost immediately, Areex and Ank dropped to the floor again.

They awoke several seconds later - back in their own bodies.

"Well, that was... intriguing" said Areex. "But what was that thing?" they said, pointing at the remains of the cylindrical object.

Ank began rooting through the remains. "It looks to be some sort of robotic lifeform. I'm seeing a psionic booster and..." That was when she pulled out a slender cylinder. Several broken wires hung from it. "...A hologram generator. I think I know what this is"

"Don't say it" said Areex.

"A psionic guard made by our favourite silicon-based species."

"The Pillars. Great. Just great. Now we have to deal with them."

Aquanghazi then looked at Areex and said inquisitively. "What is a Pillar?"

"Silicon-based. They come from the planet Pillaria. They're nasty xenophobic creatures and the main part of an organization we fight called 'The Alliance'" said Ank. "If anyone gets in their way, they kill them."

Aquanghazi looked appalled at this. "And we're in a building made by them?"

"Sadly yes" replied Ank."We're stuck in a building made by genocidal statues"

Several feet away, a group of archaeologists had found a door. This door was similar to the entrance door. The only difference was that it folded. After several attempts to get it open, one particularly strong Dainyosan managed to pull the door open.

Ank and Areex ran over to the room that had just opened. Inside was a rather large room. At the very back of the room was what appeared to be several upright coffins. Dust covered their surfaces. Attached to the coffins by huge wires attached to the ceiling was a console.

Areex ran over to one of the coffins and placed their hand over the front of the ceiling. Rubbing back revealed the occupant of the coffin.

Inside was a cylindrical head with two small eye-like impressions and a large cylindrical impression for a mouth.

The face of a frozen Pillar stared back at Areex.