Book 5: Chapter 22 — The Ravine |
Noah stood at the edge of the world. Death Valley yawned before them, a massive canyon system that seemed to swallow light itself. The reddish stone of the plains had gradually faded until now he stood among colorless grey rock streaked with bands of darker grey, stretching out so far before him that it felt absurd to even imagine it having an opposite side.
The walls descended into an abyss so deep that even his Dragon's Eyes struggled to perceive the bottom, and when they did he almost wished they hadn’t. Tangible darkness pooled in the depths, patient and hungry, formlessly writhing into temporary shapes before dispersing back into innocent shadow.
Noah’s heart constricted, responding to something primal in the valley's depths with a mixture of challenge and caution. Instincts recognized this place as fundamentally dangerous while pride demanded he prove himself its superior.
Roars echoed from below, distorted by distance and the thick power in the air, along with animal screams abruptly cut off. And behind it all, a distant, ethereal laughter that made his soul want to crawl out of his body and run as far and as fast as it could.
The voice of the Reaper? Or some other awful death-siren?
Away to the north and east he could see plateaus and ledges, interspersed tiers that ranged from desolate to teeming with life. Those closest to the top and bottom were lifeless or nearly so, while the middle depths were the most lively.
"This is it?" Noah asked, though the question felt stupid the moment it left his mouth.
“This is it,” Zax confirmed.
Bun Bun smells death, the familiar reported, and for once there was no bravado in his tone. He’d been more subdued ever since the Thornback encounter took him out so effortlessly, but now even more so. His scales had flattened against his body, his ears stiffly upright and nose twitching as he looked this way and that. So much death. Bun Bun... respects this place.
Zax stood gazing into the abyss with an expression Noah couldn't quite read. "Death Valley was not always called this." The ancient dragon's human form seemed somehow smaller here, diminished by the sheer magnitude of what lay before them. "In the age before the Sundering, it was a sacred place, one where mortals came to commune with death and return changed. Now it is a wound in the world, filled with creatures that should not exist and things that have forgotten how to die."
"Wonder how that works," Noah muttered. “I wouldn’t mind forgetting to die. Though it probably comes with a lot of nasty side benefits.”
Zax's lips twitched. It was the closest thing to a smile the dragon had shown for a few hours now. "This is where strength is forged. In fire, in blood, in the certainty that death waits around every corner."
"Very dramatic. I was hoping for maybe a nice training montage. Some inspiring music. Definitely fewer things that have forgotten how to die. Zombies have never been on my bingo card."
Aurelia snorted. "I don't know what I expected. You've been saying weird things since the day I met you."
"It's part of my charm."
"Is that what you call it?"
Despite the banter, Noah couldn't tear his eyes away from the Valley. Deadly promise, potential for everything he needed, but an equally great chance of destruction.
If not for Zax’s presence, he’d have hesitated. Probably gone back to the arena and trained until he and Aurelia could beat the whole Thornback contingent without help before even approaching the valley proper.
There was punching up and there was suicidal recklessness, and this place felt a whole lot more like one of those than the other. But Zax was ancient and powerful and knowledgeable. If he thought Noah could survive and grow here, he’d trust the dragon’s word for it.
“This way.” Zax led them to a narrow stairway carved into the side of the cliff. Though it was near midday outside the ravine, less than a minute into their descent they were already in dim twilight, and it only got darker the further they went. The steps transitioned to a ledge, which became a half tunnel, before emerging back into the open in another set of even narrower steps.
Tony calculates the depth at this point exceeds three miles, Tony reported uneasily. Please be careful.
You don’t need to worry, Noah assured his symbiote. We’ll be fine. We have Zax, we have you, and I can transform. Falling isn’t something we need to be concerned about any more.
It isn’t the falling Tony is concerned about. It’s what’s in between.
Noah glanced down at the distant darkness below and couldn’t argue.
The air grew thick and heavy as they descended, saturated with ambient mana of conflicting types that made his skin prickle with discomfort. Too many types in close proximity—earth and fire and void and more, all fighting for dominance in the same space.
He hadn't realized until now how gradually he'd grown accustomed to mana shifting its nature. When he thought back to Windrest or Drakonias, they each had a distinctive flavor of ambient mana, but even where they varied, it was a smooth variance. Clean transitions between types. This place was more like if someone had put a dozen incompatible magical signatures in a blender.
Plants were infrequent, but disturbing when they did show up. Trees grew in strange twisting angles, reaching down toward the chasm below, while their roots twisted around rocks and other trees to anchor themselves, often tightly enough to leave cracks.
[Warpleaf Bloodtree (Uncommon) - lvl ???]
Their branches were star-shaped instead of round, serrated and barbed for tearing and holding. The arrowhead-shaped leaves were broad and thick, but a pale yellow-grey that blended into the greyness all too well.
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Bun Bun does not like these, Bun Bun observed, carefully avoiding another cluster. They smell of wrong-death. Death that has… given up. Bun Bun prefers prey that struggles.
Noah laughed quietly at his familiar’s logic. “Yeah, that’s definitely the reason to avoid them, because they won’t put up enough of a fight.”
The descent took longer than Noah expected. The seemingly straightforward path when seen from above quickly turned into a maze of switchbacks and ledges that seemed designed to test their sanity. Temperature fluctuated wildly between scorching and freezing as though each section had its own climate with no regard for mundane things like the laws of physics. One moment he was sweating through his armor, the next his breath misted in the air and frost formed on his spear shaft.
The rock itself seemed unstable, occasionally shifting as if breathing. More than once, Noah had to catch himself as the ground beneath his feet moved, adjusting itself. Twice, the path simply ended, forcing them to backtrack and find alternative routes, losing over an hour to the change of route.
“I could have sworn we took the only path down,” Noah remarked the second time, when they found a new crevice to slip through leading to another set of stairs and ledges. “How did we miss this the first time around?”
Bun Bun does not trust this place, Bun Bun added, ears swiveling uneasily. The ground lies and the shadows hunger! Very devious. Bun Bun will remain vigilant.
"The Valley shifts purposefully to test us," Zax explained. "It does not want visitors. Those who enter without understanding this do not return."
"A sentient death canyon. Just what I always wanted. Its sinister voices leave something to be desired, though. Generic fear and pain, no custom whispers of despair tailored to my insecurities and fears? Two stars, unpersonalized service." He half expected the ravine to take his critique to heart and immediately start taunting him personally, but it remained impersonal and aloof.
A few minutes later, an entire section of rock crumbled away moments after they'd passed, tumbling into the darkness below and cutting off any chance of retreat for anyone who couldn’t fly.
Noah watched the rocks fall for a long time. They never reached the bottom bottom, but crumbled apart as they fell before disintegrating about halfway down into dust too small for even him to track any further.
The plant life became increasingly unnatural the deeper they went. The warpleaf trees were the least of it, at least they stood around waiting for prey to come to them instead of going out after it. Necrotic flowers that bled from their petals, swaying nettles taller than Noah that liked swiping out at them, and eventually—
“Ah!” Aurelia yelped and jumped back from the edge of the thick grass that filled this particular ledge with a burst of fire. “It stabbed my foot!”
Blood dripped down the edge of the grass blades, and Aurelia sat down to deal with the injury. The grass had sliced straight through her boots and cut to the bone.
“Walk like this.” Zax moved in a sideways twisting way that let him brush his foot along the ground to flatten the grasses instead of stepping on the pointed edges. “Always come from the side, the edge is just as dangerous as the tip.”
“Just one more lovely example of the local flora, eh?” Noah muttered as he practiced the odd steps. It’d slow them down, but not as much as if they let it shred their feet in the first few steps. "I hope the hungry trees also prey on the bleeding flowers?"
"They do. The local flora is saturated with death mana, so anything living has been corrupted or destroyed long ago. They generally won't attack directly unless provoked, but will eagerly snack on anything careless enough to give it the chance."
Noah shivered. “Doesn’t sound like a nice way to go.” It was all too easy to imagine someone walking into the patch, stumbling as his feet were stabbed into, and falling onto the rest of the bloodthirsty grass rather than being able to jump back like Aurelia had. Without anywhere to lever himself up again without offering more blood to the grasses, every movement another chance for the plants to tear him apart…?
Zax shrugged. “Death Valley is not a kind place. Those who proceed know the risks they are accepting. If they do not, they will learn very quickly.”
—
Tony is experiencing mana interference, Tony reported with unusual strain as they entered the fourth hour of their descent. The conflicting energies could cause damage if allowed to accumulate within Noah.
“I’ll see what I can do to sort things out for you,” Noah promised. He focused on the flow of mana through and around him. It took a bit of concentration to sustain, but Greater Mana Mastery let him begin filtering the chaotic mana, drawing in what was useful and deflecting what was harmful. It wasn’t perfect and the wrongness of this place remained, but it did help.
This is insane, Noah thought. Absolutely insane.
But it was also where he would grow strong enough to face whatever came next. At least he was consistent in being insane and facing insane things. He would beat this place, no matter what.
Tony is ready as well, Tony added. Tony will ensure Noah survives!
Bun Bun will hunt, Bun Bun declared, some of his confidence returning. Bun Bun will grow stronger by consuming the strong. Bun Bun will prove himself the superior predator, even here.
Noah smiled. At least he had good company.
They made camp in a defensible cavern about eight hours into their descent. Even here, Noah could feel the wrongness seeping into his bones. The mana density was unlike anything he'd experienced before, so thick it was almost tangible, and it was getting thicker the farther they went.
Despite keeping his mana filtering going pretty much nonstop, there was only so much he could do. The sheer quantity of power flooding into and through him made it feel like trying to stop a river with a bucket.
At least it’s a good workout for Mana Mastery. He’d gained three skill levels so far today and at this rate another wouldn’t be far off. He glanced over at the current area description with a grimace.
You’re in a high mana concentration zone.
Mana regeneration increased by 300%. Effectiveness of abilities are all temporarily increased by 25%. Activation cost of all abilities increased by 50%.
On paper, it was a net gain, apart from the part where instead of steady calm mana he’d be intaking chaotic unpredictable madness to fuel his abilities.
A small creature, some kind of corrupted rat the size of a large cat, skittered through the edge of his awareness, out of sight but clearly just as aware of him as he was of it.
[Deathfang Rodent (Uncommon) - lvl 362]
Noah felt it the moment it entered, knew its exact position, sensed the fear that radiated from its tiny body as it recognized a predator nearby. It bristled and hissed, then turned tail and scampered away.
He let it go, silently wondering how quickly it would have killed them all if they’d been anyone else. One creature twenty or thirty levels higher shouldn’t have been a threat, but the fact that this was the least of the place’s dangers did put it in perspective.
If that little thing was set loose on some of the villages Noah had visited, how much destruction would it have caused before anyone was able to stop it?
And if this was the weakest, what greater threats awaited them?
He didn’t have to wonder for long.
Midway through their dinner, he looked up sharply as something new entered the sphere of his awareness. Its upper body was shaped like a panther, dark-furred and feline, but that was where the resemblance ended. Its overall silhouette more reminded him of a scorpion, way too many legs bending in the wrong directions to be any kind of cat.
Eight crimson eyes gleamed with intelligence, and its maw hung open to reveal rows of teeth that extended back into its throat, giving him the uncomfortable certainty that it wouldn’t mind swallowing him whole. Rippling shadows radiated from its body in visible waves.
[Darkstalker Arachleon (Rare) - lvl 413]
Noah quietly summoned his spear and eight Arcane Spectres split off from him and spread out as he stood. “We’ve got company.”