I Roll Through The Valley (Nervan)

Desolate, grim, miserable, these words and many more could easily describe the state of Skull valley. Piles upon piles of acres upon acres of various skeletons. Pits of disgusting bubbling tar were all over the place, no plants existed in this sorrowful land. The only things that lived here, if one could call it living, were monstrous wolves hunting in packs across the land.

Among the tar, bones and distant howls, a strange individual wandered, a pallid entity with messy black hair, sunken eyes and oddly patched together clothes— it was none other than Nervan. If anyone seemed fitting to find here, it would definitely be someone that looked like they did.

Nervan shuffled and shambled around, sometimes contorting their body in odd ways to look at the evidence of decay up close. They checked many skeletons, trying to figure out what these creatures might have once been. Unfortunately, many were mangled beyond repair by the magical decay of other nearby lands. Even the tar pits were beyond insidious, unlike anything the spindly amalgam had ever seen, and they had seen many a desolate world.

Eventually, Nervan heard a voice. An unfamiliar one, yet a voice all the same. Nervan’s head moved fluidly, perhaps too fluidly in the direction of the voice. Such a motion did not match the turning of their own body either as they finally faced the stranger. “They call this place Skull valley.” Nervan explained, sadness permeating their of-many-yet-simply-singular voice. “It is a ruined land, it rots away due to the unchecked magic of stones in a series of mines in a nearby area. The stones are Blood Rubies, to be precise.”

Megis? Nervan had heard this name before— Ramen had sent a message telepathically about the capricious nature of a Majin with that exact name. There was probably more to that situation than was explained, and as far as Nervan was aware both Ramen and whoever was with her at the time were still alive. Mostly out of the group that Nervan stuck around with, it was Budoshi that had the most obvious negative reaction— but that made sense since he saw Ramen as a respected tutor of his

In any case, Megis seemed calm at the moment, more curious than anything else. Truth be told, Nervan was similarly curious and still wanting to learn more about Majins after having met several interesting ones as of late. “We are Nervan.” The entity responded. “Some sort of magical knowledge seems to be common among Majins. We have met many in our travels, each having a unique magical specialization. What is yours, if we may ask?”

Regarding the Blood Rubies, Nervan’s eternal stare trailed off into the distance. “From what we can tell, the source of this desolation is in that direction. There is an extensive mine full of Blood Rubies out there. That area is protected from the rot, but it seems to have led to disastrous consequences here where we stand. Furthermore, we are unsure if someone is directly casting a spell or if it is simply a side effect of the density of Blood Rubies in those mines.” Nervan turned to face Megis once more, seemingly in thought. “Whatever the circumstances, we find ourselves unwilling to allow negligence of the land to continue. Thus, we do our research. If the concentration of Blood Rubies is the problem, we will remove enough of them to rectify the issue. If someone is willingly causing this, we̵̵͢ ͢w̧il͘̕l ma̧̨͟k̕͝e̡͟͟ t҉͘h̶͝ȩ͢͠m̶͟ pa̶͜͡y ̵͡f̢͟o͟͠r i͢͡t̷̕͜.̢” Nervan’s tone of voice suddenly resonated with a sort of deep distorted fury that sounded as though it came from more perspectives than their own.

“Oh?” Nervan’s head tilted suddenly with a weird wooden creaking sound that went on far longer than the action itself. “That, in some way, is its own specialization. Yet another point of unique difference. Very interesting.” As with all other beings, Majins overall were a varied fount of magical potential and it made sense that there would be some that didn’t hone in on one single thing.

“Perhaps, now..?” Curious on if something they had once tried could work, Nervan held out one of their hands and attempted to pour energy into a single point. For a moment, they had created something small and slightly purple-tinted light grey, no bigger than a tennis ball in a humanoid shape with what looked to be a small antennae on the top. Unfortunately, the would-be creation dissipated into nothingness. “No? Damn. We have much more to learn.”

For a second, Nervan seemed lost in thought, but quickly remembered that someone was here conversing with them. “Sorry about that.” Nervan looked over to Megis as the Majin had some questions to ask. “No. We are not from here. Where we come from is... Worse.” There was certainly more to that, as Nervan’s collective tones— dissonant as they are— gave that singular word a mountain’s worth of weight. “Perhaps it is hard to imagine given what we see before us here, but it is the truth.”

To Nervan’s surprise, Megis seemed interested in what they were doing when trying to create something so freely. Though Nervan supposed it made sense, Megis did say that he was one to broaden his magical understanding rather than specialize. “Oh. Well, it was an attempt at creating a Majin. We failed, clearly, but it was larger than when we last tried to do it, so at least there was some progress.” Nervan shrugged lightly. “We are unsure if it is an issue of power or an issue of method. Which leads us to ask, if you are willing to share; were you created, summoned, or born? If that is too personal a question, we understand. As far as we are aware, Majins come to life in many different ways. So, if you have any general pointers or personal experience that you are more willing to share, we would appreciate it.”

Regarding where Nervan came from, they looked up into the sky. “Blood rubies were not the problem there; it was arrogance and lust for power that ruined it. We would not call that place home, either.” To Nervan, home wasn’t necessarily a place anyway.

Nervan tapped their chin in thought, and doing so made a strange metallic clanging sound despite their not being made of metal. “Hmm. We are unsure if there are Blood Rubies in this area, but it is possible due to relative proximity to the mines. If you see anything that is red much like, well— some mortal blood— then it could lead us to some Blood Rubies.” As for how dangerous they were, Nervan gave a short warning. “If misused or neglected, they can cause what we see here. We believe that to be a clear show of how dangerous they are. That said, they are not without some benefit. A small cut and refined Blood Ruby around the size of a golf ball can grant a sizable momentary boost in power when you pull energy from it correctly.” Nervan explained as they began to move along carefully, studying the land.

Nervan’s head tilted with a rusty metal creaking sound as they listened to Megis explain his own rather unique circumstances. According to him, his understanding was that Majins were largely created in secret— now, Nervan had heard otherwise, but this perspective was still valuable and something that they could learn from.

Perhaps the most interesting thing was that from what Megis was saying, it implied he was a Majin created by science rather than magic. “Intriguing. The universe holds a wealth of possibilities.” As for a Plant-centric Tuffle creating weapons to use against Saiyans, that was about as unsurprising as the sun rising in the morning; Plant was a total mess in Nervan’s eyes, but too dangerous to try and do anything beneficial with for now.

At least this Mikan fellow had a change of heart, and was at peace with benign research after creating Megis. “Quite a career change.”

Megis did have another question of his own though— he was curious as to why Nervan cared about what they were doing, or fixing what they saw as broken. “The ones that you could say ultimately caused my existence were... Unhinged. They wished to create a replacement for Shinjin, a god to be beyond gods, the be all and end all. They went to any lengths to do their experiments. Thievery of magical items, kidnapping, grave-robbing, mass murder, the list goes on. They cared for nothing but their goal. Nothing else mattered to them. They failed, of course. The final ritual performed went haywire, it was an affront to the universe and all of reality itself. We are what remains, we are the aftermath. Incomplete, broken.”

Nervan fell silent for a moment, looking away from Megis. After a short sigh, they faced the Majin again. “We have travelled to many places. Finding this sort of thing is largely due to chance, and in places such as this, we see... Ourselves. Incomplete, broken. We know how that feels. That is why we care.”

“Perhaps. We must admit, we see some similarities with our stories.” With how Megis was examining his connection to his creator, Nervan somewhat saw themselves in the Majin— perhaps it was just more obvious given that they were both some sort of creation. “You only ever risk not knowing if you lose the will to seek the knowledge.” Nervan’s head tilted with a metallic creak then snapped up straight with the sound of a glass ding. “Yet it is possible that the knowledge which you speak is not what you need, it could be something else. It is up to you to find out, like we have tried to do so for ourselves.”

As far as Skull Valley’s environment being, well, unpleasant, Nervan understood Megis’ discomfort. Maybe it was due to being a Majin that caused such a nauseous reaction? It made sense. Nervan gave a choppy wave. “We cannot imagine that many could stand being here for long periods of time, one way or another. Goodbye for now, Megis.” Soon afterward, the Majin rolled into a ball and scurried away, leaving Nervan to continue their research into Skull Valley. There had to be something worth finding here before examining the Blood Ruby Mines directly later, so until Nervan was satisfied, they would wander this land...