Chapter 350: Looking Up |
“Arlo,” said Varrin. “Why do you keep summoning and dismissing a banana?”
I ceased my fruit-based portal investigations and peeled the tropical treat. Taking a bite, I lamented how it wasn’t as tasty as an Earth banana, mainly due to the seeds. I spit a few out and pointed at Varrin. “I was making sure that using my inventory wouldn’t inadvertently cause a localized dragon apocalypse.”
“As one does,” he replied in a long-suffering tone. “Now what in all the hells does that mean?”
I spat out another seed and proceeded to loop everyone in on the goings ons within Closetland. There were a few detours in the conversation, including what I was hoping Nokomi would help out with. By the time we were done, Guar’s arm had fully regenerated, and I’d assembled a portable workshop to do some gear repairs.
“Then we no longer have our fallback position,” said Major Kai. He shifted on his crutch as his leg grew back at a visible pace, now only missing everything below the middle of his shin. “Perhaps we can coordinate to gather everyone in a single place, then leave through your portal while the dragon ruler comes through. If what she is saying is true, it may not be a terrible course of action.”
“Assuming we can find everyone,” said Guar. “It’s called a Labyrinth for a reason, right?”
“Thoughts, Grotto?” I asked as I finished making adjustments to my old Verdantum gauntlet. I was making it work with my Prismatite vambrace.
“While I have never personally been responsible for Labyrinth operations, I am willing to make some predictions based on Labyrinth rules and the overarching logic of Delves. I expect the layout will keep Delvers separated throughout the primary challenges, allowing them to operate in smaller, party-sized teams. Then, multiple parties will be brought into conflict around objectives such as the obelisks.”
“So can we expect more people to show up here?” asked Kai.
“How confident are you in that assessment?”
“I believe it is more likely than not, but I cannot truly know without becoming a co-arbiter of this Labyrinth.”
“Labyrinths have their own exit conditions,” I said, pulling up my notification history. “The rules for this one say, ‘exit portals will be provided whenever an obelisk is successfully activated, whereupon up to 5 Delvers may choose to either exit via the portal or stay within the Labyrinth to pursue additional obelisks and rewards.’”
All five of us looked at the obelisk and the obvious absence of an exit portal.
“Maybe it hasn’t appeared because there’s still a level reward remaining?”
Major Kai stroked his chin and considered. “Very well,” he said. “I will accept the final level. If this opens a portal, then I recommend Guar and I withdraw. We can–”
Kai was interrupted by a platform rising from the ground a hundred feet away from the obelisk. One of the wormholes opened on top of it, and a new group of five walked out.
Leading the way was Tavio, the buff and brown-furred commanding officer for every Littan Delver on the current mission and the source of about half of all the concussions I’d ever gotten. He was followed closely by Madel. The red-eyed Littan weapon master floated through the air towards her teammate Guar, her crimson cape swaying dramatically in contrast to her impassive expression.
Next was Joma, the Iskarim pugilist and handler for Nottagator. She had a golden cloak that also swayed dramatically, although that was because the cloak was a sentient piece of clothing called Cloaky. I was pretty sure he was trying to imitate Madel. After that came Ember, the Hiwardian archer and Chalgoth enthusiast, and finally was Xim, who grinned wide when she saw me, Varrin, and Etja. She skipped over to us like a happy schoolgirl.
“Hey there,” I said. “Where did your crew of roughnecks come from?”
“Unarmed,” she said. “I’d gotten my hopes up about getting some good clobbering time, but the Dungeon had been destroyed by one of the United before we got there.”
“The same thing happened to us in Blunt. Did you end up fighting?”
“If you can call it that,” she said, brushing a lock of hair from her face. “Tavio, Joma, and Madel turned the guy into chunks, I set the chunks on fire, and Ember smeared what was left across a mile’s worth of forest. It took about twelve seconds.”
“Wow,” I said. “Good party comp.”
Xim nodded, but stopped suddenly to squint above our heads. “Hey! You’ve all got a level on me.”
“There’s one more in the obelisk,” I said. “If you feel like convincing everyone that you should be the one to get it.”
Tavio had been speaking softly to Major Kai, but looked over when I said that. “It will either be her or Madel,” he said. “Everyone else is at a higher level.” Kai nodded, letting me know there’d be no hard feelings over the sudden swap.
“Take it,” said Madel. “You’re a healer, you can deal with Charl, and there’s obviously something wrong with this Labyrinth.”
“What does that last bit have to do with anything?” I asked.
“Your party is all about fucked up Delves,” she said. “We are currently inside of a fucked up Delve, so I want the experts to be as well-equipped as possible.”
“I won’t argue with that,” said Xim. She stepped up to the obelisk, made sure no one was going to challenge her over it, then slapped her palm down. Power flooded into her body, after which she smiled wide and started looking over screens. Soon enough she was mumbling under her breath about whether she wanted to be ‘a little’ faster or if she’d rather work on tying Varrin for Strength. Then she gasped and whispered about burning things alive to gain Haste, which I assumed had to do with her passive skill upgrade.
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Tavio and Kai had kept a careful eye as Xim grabbed her level, and I followed their gaze while they looked around the orchard we were gathered in. Despite all of the obelisk’s rewards being claimed, no exit portal had appeared.
“Are we being scammed?” I asked Grotto as I returned to getting my Verdantum gorget to cooperate with my Prismatite helm.
“The Labyrinth dashboard I have access to shows that portal disruption has been pushed to its limits. This may be enough interference to negate the Labyrinth’s own portal generation.”
“Why would the Cores in control of this place do that?”
“Without having greater access, I can only conclude that their goal is to disrupt portals.” Grotto swiped a feeler in irritation. “We should divorce ourselves from the chaff and continue deeper. We may be able to find a location from which we can access administrative facilities.”
I looked around at the gathered all-stars. “Who here would you consider ‘chaff?’”
“Major Kai is no better than I’d expect from a gold at his level. Guar and Madel have hope, but cannot keep up with us at the moment.”
As Grotto critiqued several of the empire’s finest, Joma walked up to our group.
“You can’t portal us out?” she asked.
“Not without admitting a dragon who’ll rampage through the entire place, killing anyone who isn’t with us currently.”
Joma crossed her arms. “That’s a ‘no’ then?”
“No, I can’t get us out right now.”
“Fine,” she said. “I’m gonna keep going. Nottagator’s hungry and the last guy we killed evaporated because of Ember’s bullshit.”
Joma pushed past us to go in search of more wormhole platforms. Cloaky gave me a wave as they went and whispered “sorry.” I wasn’t clear on what he was sorry for. I had a moment to wonder where Nottagator was before the atrocidile’s massive, spectral head popped up from the ground, slinking back and forth in Joma’s wake like it was wading through water in search of prey. The fact the big girl could go incorporeal at will like that was terrifying.
“I’ll go see where the other portals lead,” said Varrin, heading off behind the furry princess pugilist. Tavio came over to consult with us, and we took some time to map out the Labyrinth connections we’d found while I inspected the old armor for my right arm. It would still work with the Demon Bone cuirass, since I’d been using them together before I swapped to mostly Prismatite.
“There’s no guarantee the portal connections will stay the same,” I said, frowning at the visual mess my gear had become. The muted green wasn’t quite working with the sparkling blue. With the addition of my boa the full getup was leaning away from a sophisticated ‘loud and proud’ towards a more bumbling ‘loud and obnoxious.’
“The place must be navigable in some way,” said Tavio. “This will give us a place to begin.” He was taking notes on one of the hefty slates the Littans used. While its communication functions were offline, it still had some local capabilities. “Etja.” Tavio turned his body toward the mage, eyes still fixed on the tablet. “You mentioned that you’d been through a unique Dungeon. Where else did that one lead aside from this obelisk chamber?”
Tavio looked up at her when she didn’t reply. “Lady Nothosis?”
Xim turned from her screens and I looked away from my repairs to check on Etja as well. She was staring off into space.
“Etja, you okay?” I asked, waving a hand in front of her. She still didn’t react, prompting me to look at her status on my party screen. There was nothing to indicate she was harmed, although plenty of debuffs wouldn’t show up there. “Xim, Cleanse?”
Our cleric nodded and cast the spell. A burst of harmless divine fire swept across Etja’s body. Despite it, she remained nonresponsive. Xim stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“There’s nothing wrong with her more humanoid parts, but she’s as much golem stuff as organics.” Grotto floated over next, hovering around Etja to perform some kind of scan, his feelers undulating. I went ahead and stashed the gear I'd been working on.
“There are no issues, so far as I can tell.” He floated back and looked her up and down, his big black eyes stopping on Etja’s feet. I looked down to see she wasn’t floating, but standing on the ground. “If she were a normal golem I would say that her controller has issued her a stop command.”
“She doesn’t have a controller,” said Xim.
A moment of dread settled over me. I quickly cast Life Warden on Etja, then Grotto. Varrin headed back over to us, alerted to the situation through Reveal.
Tavio responded to my reaction by calling the Littans to order. “What is it?” he asked. Before I could respond, Guar’s eyes lit up in a golden blaze, burning like I hadn’t seen since our fight with the Hierophant.
“Death from above,” he said.
He burst forward to Etja’s side, summoning all three of his Shield Walls above us and holding his newly equipped backup shield up over her head. I felt something tearing its way through the compressed space above. The other Littans didn’t ask questions, they just fired off more defensive skills in the scant second we had to react. My staff was out and Aura of Perseverance was pumping out Shielding as the canopy parted, revealing the storm-flooded skies.
A dark shape fell onto us.
I sent Gracorvus to support Guar as his barriers shattered, then grabbed Etja to put myself between the comatose mage and what I feared was coming. An enormous creature landed on our shields, slowed by only the tiniest fraction. I teleported us away at the last instant, taking along everyone within five feet of me. The thing landed amidst us like a bomb.
Even after the teleport, the blast hit us like a loaded semi-truck. I let it hurl us away even further, creating more distance and avoiding the harsh g-forces of Gravity Anchor on Etja’s helpless body. A tree slammed into my back, shattering as I broke through it before I bounced off another in a spray of bark and a rain of citrus fruits. My Shielding plummeted from the hit and from the damage I soaked from everyone else.
I righted myself and put Etja into a fireman’s carry as I looked back. The orchard was gone. Dirt and debris fell from the sky. A billowing cloud obscured my vision, but I didn’t need eyes to see. Soul-Sight showed me everything I needed to know.
It had an ebon spirit that created an oppressive, crushing force with its mere existence. It was similar to her brother’s but sought to push rather than pull; a darkness that tried to inject itself into me, blindingly hot.
And her brother soon fell to join her, landing lightly despite his hulking form. The creature’s soul was a familiar ravenous pit. It was the leviathan’s maw, greedy to gorge itself on everything we had.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” came a ragged voice from the second figure. It echoed unnaturally through the ruined grove. “My wish, fulfilled. Our child has found her way back to me.”
The beast gestured in the gloom, and the clouds of dust were swept away, swirling as they went. It was hunched over, yet still towered over the recovering Littans. Gray strips of cloth hung off of it like dirty bandages, shrouding most of its body. A long snout poked from beneath the ragged cloth, and where eyes might have been, there was nothing but a pair of holes that evoked a sense of endless depths, absolutely dark and hungry.
Its cavernous mouth opened, revealing no teeth or throat, but only dark swirling threads of energy leading to its center. They spiraled hypnotically, beckoning us to throw ourselves in. Its arms were long and ended in simian hands with knuckles that dragged the ground, even with elbows bent. From beneath the cloth that covered its chest, two smaller arms wrapped its gut, clutching at the garments. Each finger of the smaller hands glowed with a different hue of sickly light. Its flesh was gray and drooped into folds at the joints, though it was pulled taut against engorged muscle along its limbs.
The first creature to have landed stood from her low crouch, rising to nearly twice the height of her brother. She was physically similar, with two limbs dragging the ground and four more crossed over her chest and belly. A long tail whipped around at her back.
At the ends of her six arms were not hands, instead ending in abyssal holes. Where her brother’s feet were malformed hooves, hers were long and slender, looking out of place with their normality. She was wrapped in the same tattered gray cloth, her body covered in coiled, ropy muscle, but her form was distinctly feminine. The front of her head was a smoking crater, leaking smog into the air.
It was Orexis and Anesis, come to reclaim their wayward child.