Chapter Seven

Toa Helryx, leader of the Order of Mata Nui, picked her way across the remains of a battlefield. She was on the beach of the island of Nynrah, site of a struggle between the Brotherhood of Makuta and the Order. After a long and furious battle, the Order had won, driving the Brotherhood forces from the island or crushing them on the beach. Now she wandered the sands, occasionally picking up a piece of Rahkshi armor, studying it for a moment and then discarding it.

There was a method to her madness. Using her Mask of Power, Helryx could read the past of an object simply by touching it. Her goal here was simple: Rahkshi were created using a powerful substance called energized protodermis. The Order wanted to know every source of that substance used by the Makuta so they could capture or destroy those sources. Without them, no new Rahkshi could come into being.

So far, all the ones she had identified here were sources the Order already knew about. Still, it was worth the effort. It would be far easier to defeat the Brotherhood by cutting off their source of power, rather than beating them in battle.

She picked up a piece of crimson Rahkshi armor and called on the power of her mask. This time, she saw a place she did not recognize. Makuta Chirox was there, and a silvery pool — but not just any pool, no, this one had a figure emerging from it. A being actually made of energized protodermis. She concentrated hard and the location came to her: an island just north of the one her newest ally came from.

Helryx dropped the piece of armor and turned to Keetongu. The Rahi had reluctantly agreed to break off his efforts to save the victims of Visorak long enough to help in the war. In return, Helryx had promised him the Visorak would never again be a threat to anyone else.

“We have to go,” she said. “There’s another source.”

It was a short journey. Their destination had at first seemed uninhabited, but that illusion didn’t last long. Helryx spotted… things skulking among the rocks. They weren’t Matoran, or Rahi, but looked like something in between. The overall feeling was that something was very wrong here. The air, the ground, the inhabitants all felt off, somehow, in a way that obviously made Keetongu uneasy.

There were no buildings on the island — none left standing, anyway. The most prominent feature was a large cave. Helryx and Keetongu entered cautiously. The passage narrowed considerably once they were a little ways in, forcing them to crawl to make any forward progress. Helryx couldn’t help but think how easy it would be to get trapped in here.

As the passage widened again, Helryx saw more creatures. These obviously were Rahi beasts, but not like anything she’d seen before. They were short, pale bipeds, with large yellow eyes and spindly arms and legs. They backed away and moved to the side as she and her ally passed. But as soon as the two had moved on, they assembled into a group and followed close behind.

Helryx and Keetongu came to a huge chamber. In the center of it was not a pool of energized protodermis, but an actual lake of the stuff. And rising from the center was the figure of a living being. A head, two arms, a torso ending in the lake itself. Its features were barely there, and its substance was the silver color of energized protodermis. The sight triggered a memory. An agent on Metru Nui had reported that Turaga Vakama had once mentioned an energized protodermis entity his team had fought when they were Toa Metru. Could this be the same being?

“I have been expecting you,” said the figure. “I have felt your kind at work in my pools throughout this universe. Destructive, but ultimately futile. Cap one source of my substance and it will emerge somewhere else.”

“Then we will destroy it there, too,” Helryx answered. “What are you?”

“I am creation and destruction,” the entity answered. “I am the power to transform and to destroy. I am every drop of energized protodermis that exists, and every drop is me. I am as far beyond you, creature of armor and tissue, as you are beyond an insect.”

“And your purpose here?” asked Helryx.

“I did not choose to come here,” the entity replied. “I lived in the core of a planet, until one day a portion of my substance forced its way to the surface. It did not take long for the inhabitants of that world to discover my power, or to begin warring over it. But some of what makes up my form was taken and placed inside this universe, and so escaped before cataclysm overtook that world.”

“And now?” said Helryx.

“Now I experiment on the creatures and things I find around me,” said the entity. “I have even let others make use of my power if I found their intentions intriguing enough.”

“You have helped create beings that have brought terror and death to thousands,” said Helryx. “It has to stop.”

“Is a weapon responsible for the actions of the one who wields it?” asked the entity.

“Perhaps not,” said Helryx. “But a weapon can be broken and so never used again.”

A soft sound that might have been laughter escaped from the entity.

“I have met your kind before. So confident in your power to contain me, control me, or destroy me. You are no more than stone apes reaching for the stars, believing you could extinguish them if only you could get them in your grasp.”

The lake began to boil and churn; a huge wave of energized protodermis rose up behind the entity, so wide it spanned the whole chamber, and began to speed across the surface towards Helryx and Keetongu.

“Transformation, or destruction,” said the entity. “Which will be your fate? Let us find out together.”