My feet plopped on the puddled ground. In front of me, Althea rested on a table, her leg compressed by a tourniquet. She gave me a thumbs up and a shaky smile.
“Great job.”
I winced, the consequences of the battle falling on me like a cinderblock.
“Are you ok?”
She nodded, sweat dripping from her forehead.
“I am. I was always worried about an enemy that could use something like electricity. That’s why I practiced turning different parts of my body into different materials. I asked Torix, and he told me hair isn’t conductive. I also learned that hair is just keratin, like your nails or the claws of beasts.”
Althea took a steadying breath.
“That’s why I sealed my leg off using a layer of keratin when I couldn’t dodge. My leg took all the electricity and exploded from…From the water evaporating. I’m going to need a moment to recover, but that was better than just dying.”
I gazed at her in awe.
“You’re so damn smart. Like, wow.”
She flushed, turning away. She pulled a strand of hair off her face.
“Thanks.”
Aatrox, the sickle wielding guardian, spoke with a steady voice,
“Impressive.”
I raised an eyebrow,
“It’s a cool surprise, but I thought you guys didn’t have a fully functioning mind. You, uh, sound pretty functional.”
Aatrox gestured to Kessiah. The remnant shrugged,
“This isn’t a normal guardian. Uh…Let me think.”
Kessiah frowned, pointing a finger towards the sky in mocking imitation,
“Indeed Kessiah. Using my incredulous intellect, I infused the corpses of two dead disciples into the corpses of my slain warriors. I know, I know, hold your applause at my sheer and unmatched intellect.”
Althea giggled at Kessiah’s Torix impersonation. I even cracked a smile before Aatrox spoke again.
“He gave us a new life. What else are we to do but serve him?”
Althea glanced at them, a variety of emotions crossing her face. They settled on a calm, cold kindness.
“I don’t know, but you should make that decision on your own.”
I agreed, though the guardians didn’t seem phased by what she said. Kessiah kicked a table across the room. It clattered against the concrete wall, and she said,
“Come on, let’s go. Yawm has guards here. Why? Probably because the jackass learned about our plans after we cleared the last dungeon. That means we have to hurry up.”
Before heading out, I pressed my palm into the floor, my armor soaking up the blood of the monster over the next few seconds. After that, I walked up, and my armor consumed the corpse the same way. Each of these guys had about five million ambient mana, so it would only take a whopping twelve thousand of them for my next armor evolution. Wooo.
Despite the encroaching wall in ambient mana, I hadn’t hit any obstacle for my levels. This wasn’t a boss monster, so the experience bonus I gained from the Obliterator tree wasn’t there. However, the quarantine still kicked into high gear, and from it, I gained forty three levels. It exceeded expectations, honestly.
After a quick allocation of stat points, another surge from afar coursed into my limbs, giving strength and power in unseen forms. A surge of will erupted through my mind, and I clasped my hands at the gift. Of all the attributes, from strength to constitution to endurance, willpower felt the best to invest in. It gave me the most potent form of power in life - a power over one’s self.
I believed that in demonstrating self mastery, one may seize the world. Willpower granted that, or at least the illusion of it. For me, that was enough. After taking in the energy, I generated a burst of mana. It plumed from my hand, a tiny fire in my palm. I laughed as the weight on my mind lessened despite the greater flow.
At the same time, another perk appeared.
[Serendipity’s Soul | Luck of 100 or higher. You have 1 remaining level 100 perk left for selection. Choose wisely. | Many live a life unattuned to all that lies before them. In doing so, they are left helpless against the tides of fate. Each event wears them down further, beating them into cowardly wretches should they lack perseverance. You chose a different path. You decided to bend the will and whims of fate to your side.
In doing so, happenstance becomes certainty. Others will believe you rely on chance. You understand that by putting the odds in your favor, you eliminate chance from your life. That is because a measure of uncertainty is inevitable, as everyone will experience many tiny little tellings of destiny in their lives. You’ve simply ensured that those stories will assist you while others have left that up to fate’s hand.
For you have taken fate’s hand and made it yours.
Doubles the additional money found, odds in your favor, and chance of rare events for every level gained from the luck leveling perk. Adds another 3 points of health, stamina, and mana per point in luck. | 6 health in total | Adds another 1/10th of luck to charisma. | 30% of luck to charisma in total | Doubles the changes in causality from points of luck. Increases mythical skill cap by 1. | 5 Total, 4 remaining |
This perk presents a random bonus choice upon selection.
I had the option of choosing this leveling perk or choosing the perception one later on. Charisma simply wasn’t what I wanted to do with my build, but these two attributes felt like great supportive pieces to have. On the one hand, perception offered immense utility. On the other hand, luck gave raw stats that guaranteed a boost in my fighting ability.
After a while, I had no solution. Instead of waiting, I took a moment and searched around a bit. Finding a coin, I chose tails for luck and heads for perception. A quick flip later, and it landed on tails. I laughed, finding a bit of fate in the outcome. Even the luck perk was lucky, so it would seem.
I selected it and finalized my decision. A quick woosh later, and I cracked my neck in satisfaction. While not having the same rush as other attributes, I liked the perk’s description. It was true. Everyone experienced luck one way or the other. I simply made it favorable, and in a way, that made me less reliant on the whims of fate. I liked that.
After selection, the choice presented itself.
You may cancel your single use revival gained from the level 30 perk in luck. By doing so, any death will be absolute and utter. However, you will be granted further causality bonuses from luck, and you will also get an extra point of health, stamina, and mana per point of luck. If chosen, luck will grant 7 total points to each of your resources.
I thought the option through, and while the revival seemed powerful, I didn’t know if it was a genuine rebirth. For instance, what if I was vaporized? Would the perk revive me from my disparate atoms? If so, could that reconstruction even be considered the real me? I didn’t think so. It would be a lifelike imitation but not the genuine article.
That’s why if I died, then I would die. That was the way of the universe, and even Schema couldn’t dominate that domain. Also, and to an irrational degree, I enjoyed how luck would give me 7 points in health, stamina, and mana. It brought an overly large grin to my face seeing how that lined up. After all, the lucky attribute gave me a lucky amount of each resource. I mean, think of the synergy, right? For those reasons, I selected yes.
A small surge flowed through me, and after taking a breath, I clasped my hand that held a blot of mana. I opened my status screen.
Level 606
Strength - 252.6 | Constitution - 562.1 | Endurance - 1,000.5
Dexterity - 100 | Willpower - 852.3 | Intelligence - 279.7
Charisma - 45.1 | Luck - 107.9 | Perception - 54
Daniel Hillside, The Harbinger of Cataclysm
Health - 58,900/58,900 | Health Regen - 16,902/min | Stamina - 25,651/25,651 | Stamina Regeneration - 339/sec | Damage Resistance - 98% | Mental Resistance - 98% | Physical Power - (+)4,023% | Damage Increase - 20% | Evolution: 0.16/65.5 Billion Ambient Mana
Aura - Oppression | Current Damage: (15,000 + 40% of your health)/minute within a 200 ft radius.
The mental benefits far exceeded the numerical changes, though the raw numbers all creeped up from my leveling perks. Pacing down the low lit hallway of the stadium, I appreciated the subtle changes. I pressed into the ground more, and my feet clomped against the tiles. Already cracked tiles splintered under my feet if I gave them a bit of a stomp. If I clomped my feet like some lumbering giant, I could even make the subtlest of quakes. They were awe inspiring.
Well, to me at least.
My skills probably didn’t match up to someone like Torix, but I earned my keep at this point. Still, any thoughts of comparison faded as I gazed at Torix’s guards. Each of them suffused power, their bearing explosive and regal. Torix made these warriors and countless others since coming here. Any ideas of comparing my and his strength seemed futile.
Despite myself, I grinned at the thought. Maybe one day, he and I would stand side by side in strength, the both of us ruling far distant lands. I let that daydream die, choosing not to entertain it further. With the stats handled, another set of echoing ebbed in the distance. It placed me back in the real world.
More explosive in pitch, the echoes sounded like a thunder storm instead of stomping steps. Treading toward the sound, we reached the ticket booth leading into the stadium’s center. The spiral entry gates rusted over, and we stepped over them as many would when the confounded machines refused to work.
One of my feet got caught on the metal prongs, and I fell forward. After my faceplant, Althea and Kessiah laughed. Even with superhuman reflexes and strength, these damn machines still got me. Curse you, confounded prong machine things.
Beyond the failing machinery, one of Yawm’s guards walked by, the arc reactor on his back shooting lightning every few seconds. The abyssal monster had a harpoon cannon as a right hand instead of a drill. The entire head was composed of glowing, yellow glass with a wire mesh supporting it. Along its feet were blocks of iron made from a thousand tiny strands of iron compressed together.
It glanced up at us, shocked by our presence. It couldn’t see very well, apparently.
Spiker, Koshack Sentry | Level 974 – A servant of an undersea emperor of their home world, their kind lives in the dark. The sentries acted as a form of ranged offensive potential in strike groups during military excursions. Using a wide range of visions, they could also be used as exceptionally effective scouts given the right situation.
To give these creatures such excellent vision, tiny parasites are embedded in their eyes at birth. These parasites grant Koshack sentries tremendous visual clarity while young, allowing these divers to see for miles even in the ocean below. Eventually, the parasites expand into the monster’s eyes and brain, muting the Koshacks’ otherwise remarkable intelligence and sight.
That vision and intellect gives these sentries and their harpoon rifles remarkable lethality. Designed for maiming rather than piercing, the spears sport elongated prongs on the sides of the spear shafts. Once they’ve pinned an enemy down at a distance, Koshack sentries send powerful bolts of electricity into their iron laden spears. This can make their electric attacks many times stronger than normal Koshack warriors due to their enhanced conduction of the metal.
Their mobility is also superior to their more grounded brethren, the juggernauts. Sentries can magnetize the metal under their feet using the arc reactors on their back. This allows it to perform moves otherwise made impossible due to the power of magnetism. If all else fails, they can also detonate their reactor cores upon death.
While not a sure-fire way to encroach upon death, facing one of these monsters will be an undertaking to say the very least.
This monster looked more challenging than Mauler had. With that in mind, I turned to Althea.
“Let’s come up with a quick plan, maybe?”
Althea skulked low to the ground,
“They’ll deflect my spears the same way as before. I’m going to try and use a dry version of my spears so they don’t explode. Any ideas for you?”
I considered our previous fight. I raised my hand.
“I’ll shield myself from the lightning more this time. We should’ve taken the last enemy and pulled it away from the water.”
Althea pointed at Spiker. She murmured,
“For sure. Can you keep the lightning away from me? Maybe using a bit of, er, telekinesis, right?”
I raised my hands, ascendance flowing through them.
“Of course. It’s the least I can do.”
She grinned my way.
“I can’t wait to see what’s the best you can do, then.”
Turning to the monster, I sprinted toward it. The monster’s head twitched after I reached a certain distance. It raised the harpoon gun and fired at me. I moved my arm to deflect it, but Althea’s harpoon hit the other harpoon midair. Althea’s bullet split the spiker’s harpoon in half, the pieces spinning before lodging into the ceiling and floor at my sides.
Another shot hissed through the air, but Althea kept pace by firing each shot out of the air. I neared the spiker in seconds. My ascendant mana roared stronger than ever, raging in my limbs. The voice of rage and hunger faded somewhat, becoming less domineering than before. At the same time, I wielded more of it.
My steps cracked stone as my helmet let out a metallic roar. Mana erupted, and the desire to tear and maul my opponent poisoned my psyche. I silenced it, containing the sudden rage. My will clasped it, the calm, cold focus lending clarity. I required precision for what would come.
Once I reached the monster, it sent out a wave of electricity like an EMP grenade. The electromagnetic pulse didn’t affect me, but Kade and Aatrox’s various electronics sizzled from different parts of their armor. As I reached within ten feet of Spiker, it sent out a bolt of lightning towards a ticket booth and two metal prong machines.
It jumped sideways, the metal on its feet pulling it towards the spiral entryways. I cursed. Even in battle, they hated me. The sentry landed sideways fifty feet away. The move defied gravity, throwing me off for a second. That second was long enough for a harpoon to be fired right at me. The bullet landed straight into my neck, drilling through my armor and my back.
I gurgled on blood, fear flooding me. I dragged back several feet as the metal lodged a foot deep. The massive spear left a mortal wound, and a primal terror welled in my chest. Before it overwhelmed me, I took a moment to calm myself down. I focused so much on my own techniques that I forgot to react to my opponents. I paid for that arrogance, and I might die here.
Althea appeared beside me. She sliced the ends of the spear away in a half second. In another, she reached out her hand. A tiny blade of keratin grew out of her fingertip. She took a steady breath, her gaze calm. In a surgical slice, she cut my neck before jerking the bone spear away through the tiny slice. She timed it between my heartbeats, so no blood spilled away. My neck reattached, her clean cut healing in less than a second.
Our eyes met, and she grinned like the sun and stars. Though I couldn’t speak, I thanked her with my eyes. Another spear bolted at us, and she fired without peering at it. As the two halves landed beside us, her smile turned into a smirk. Something sparked in my chest at that, and I held back a whistle of approval.
She was incredible.
She turned, firing once more before a spark of lightning sent her flying away. Incredible or not, she wouldn’t kill this alone. As a burst of steam streamed from the spiker’s rifle, I grabbed the end of the spear behind me and hurled it at the monster. It distracted the beast, letting me assess my wound on my neck. It still oozed a small amount of blood, and the rough, jagged hole in my neck lingered. However, it began closing already from Althea’s quick thinking.
Taking a moment, I sealed my neck using my armor, and I stayed standing on wobbly legs. Althea gave me another half minute to heal, and by then, the wound nearly closed. My armor grinned, teeth forming over my helm. It opened, and mana roared through me. Tendrils of ascendant mana reached from my armor’s maw, and I charged towards the monster once more. I deflected the next spear coming my way. When I neared it, electricity flowed into the arc reactor before firing into the metal frame of a large window. It jumped up, flying sideways through the air.
The invisible pull looked just as crazy the second time, but I was ready for it. I reached out with both my hands while ten feet away from the monster. The ascendant mana in my veins roared to life, pulsing like an endless wrath. My telekinesis grabbed the monster’s feet. I jerked back, and the beast tackled into the ground metal as if falling from the second floor of a building.
It crushed metal, some of the thinner bits wrapping around its feet. I growled as my throat healed. I stomped my heels into the ground, the jerking of telekinesis harder than if I pulled it with my own hands. Like an invisible rope, I stretched out my right arm via telekinetic pads. I pulled the monster closer.
With each pull of my hand, it came an arm’s length closer. The monster stabbed its fingers into the ground, even using its spear for extra grip. It didn’t matter. I planted my feet into the ground using my telekinetic pads. I was too grounded and empowered by mana. It couldn’t stop me. Nothing could.
I shook my head, taking a moment to collect myself. That was my mana talking, not me. I nearly died from a stray spear, and I couldn’t afford to feel arrogant.
The sentry pointed its rifle at me, but it changed the angle of its firing a second later. The monster’s spear clanked against one of Althea’s harpoons, diverting her harpoon upwards. The monster’s spear deflected downwards, stabbing into the ground beside me. The monster then shot a bolt of lightning into the metal spear and reached out to it.
Magnetism. My telekinetic strain tripled as my feet dug into the ground. Cracks webbed into the ground as my knees buckled. The monster’s feet pulled towards his own magnetized spear. Taking the moment, the monster clanked in an extra bolt from behind its back, the harpoon popping into the barrel.
He pointed it towards me before I released my telekinetic tether.
The monster whipped in the air as it fired. The bolt slid into the rock roof as I sprinted towards him. The feet of the monster landed sideways on its spear, and its shoulder leaned against the floor as if leaning against a wall. the spear. I leapt towards the creature, my hand empowered by telekinetic constructs. I only needed one strike to start a chain reaction of blows.
It reached out its left hand. Before it shocked me, I wielded my mana out of my runes, weakening my body. A blinding light flew towards me, consuming my vision in white. My jaw clasped until my teeth broke, and my muscles tensed to the absolute limit of my strength.
Small muscles ripped in my wrist and left leg. The light kept consuming my vision, and as my muscles continued straining, I could see my stamina bar depleting. For the first time since investing into endurance, my stamina had become something worth rationing. In tandem, I couldn’t absorb the spike in energy.
It was greater than my armor could absorb. The leftover tendrils of lightning created enough strain on my body that my stamina couldn’t keep up anymore. A few seconds later, one of the muscles in my calves snapped. The popping of a hamstring followed. The blinding light ceased a second later.
I fell to my knees, exhausted and heaving for breath. I glanced up, and the arc reactor had melted on the back of the monster. Several spears jutted out of its face, chest, and joints. The molten metal already killed it, the flesh of the creature bubbling inside its suit. Waiting a while, I caught my breath. After standing up, my stamina and health regenerated.
I glanced back at the others. They stared back with glazed eyes. I shouted,
“Come on guys. Surely you guys can help me next time. That was actually kind of close.”
Kessiah cupped her hands around her mouth, “I’ll be honest. I kind of thought you were dead. That thing just exploded.”
I swiped some broken rock from my shoulder.
“No, I’m fine. My build is designed to stop suicide bombers. While they can still really hurt me, I’m too tanky to just die from one of them. Still, without Althea’s help, I’d probably be dead.”
Kessiah scoffed.
“That’s how it goes sometimes.”
Althea glared at Kessiah. Our sniper walked up,
“So look, I get that you’re tough and rugged, but this…This is supposed to be training. If we die, you’ll be stuck on this planet too.”
Kessiah shrugged.
“Some lessons are better learned the hard way.”
Althea stammered.
“B-but that was-”
Kessiah peered down at her.
“A very important lesson. You both trained together, and Daniel already knows how to deflect spears. You ended up deflecting them for him, so he had to close the gap to get damage in. He trusted you to handle the spears, and then you missed one. That spear nearly killed him.”
I frowned.
“That was my fault.”
Kessiah raised a hand while staring at Althea. Kessiah murmured,
“Let me say this.”
Althea peered down. Kessiah put a hand on her shoulder,
“Listen to me. When you fight with someone, think about their skills. Covering for someone is great when you have to, but sometimes, you shouldn’t. Daniel wouldn’t have taken that spear if you had let him handle those attacks. Because of that, the enemy was also able to focus only on turning him into target practice.”
I blinked. Kessiah was probably right, but she didn’t have to be this harsh about a simple mistake. Kessiah sighed,
“Your job is to show them exactly what offensive pressure is. When you do, you don’t just kill enemies. You also stop them from unloading on Daniel. That’s how you defend him.”
Althea bristled, squeezing her hands to fists and masking her face with her hair. A well of shame pooled over Althea, and she soaked in the painful waters for a moment. Breaking that torment, Kessiah rustled Althea’s hair,
“Now, I say all that, but wow. You did an amazing job helping Daniel heal from the wound like that. The timing, composure, and fade away spear deflection…Mwah, perfection.”
Kessiah kissed her fingers like a chef at her last words. Althea peered up,
“Thanks. I’ll…I’ll keep that in mind.”
Kessaih walked over to me. She pointed her hand like a finger cannon.
“Here’s your lesson. I know it’s tempting to run in and wail on your enemies. It’s where you’re strong and powerful. However, some enemies can zone you very effectively. In those situations, you have to time your approach during a lull in their attacks, alright? If you don’t, they’ll burn you down to a crisp, tanky build or not.”
I grimaced.
“Damn. You’re right. I was overeager to use some of my new techniques, and that nearly got me killed. I should’ve taken advantage of Althea’s long range offense while I absorbed its pressure in bursts. Gah, it all happened so fast.”
Kessiah put her weight on one hip.
“And that’s what I’m here for – to teach you both tactics. Now, let’s move on, shall we?”
Althea and I gazed at each other. Something lingered in the air as we did. We nodded before I walked toward the monster. I glanced at my health. It was full now, but the monster dealt over three quarters of my health in its suicidal burst. It wasn’t the worst outcome considering how high level the monster was, but two of those monsters would’ve killed me.
The humbling thought sobered me. I pointed towards the stadium’s entrance,
“Come on guys. Let's handle our statuses as we go…And, you know, let’s do better next time too.”
Althea raised her rifle.
“Will do, chief.”
I walked to the stairs of the stadium while peering at my status. I gained another forty four levels from the spiker. Once again, that exceeded my expectations, but I wouldn’t complain either way. I put all my remaining points into willpower. The increase in will and power flooded my system like a narcotic, though more subtle than other bursts. Regardless of the feeling, any decrease in mana’s insidious influence was always appreciated.
Glancing up from my screen, I noticed the hallway we walked down. The stairs leading into the stadium split into two divergent paths, each leading to different parts of the main arena. During an actual game, anyone walking in would’ve heard the roaring of the crowd echoing through this tunnel. The bells, screens, and reactions to the game would’ve radiated in here like the living pulse of a small town’s anticipation and excitement.
In that moment, only the eerie howls of far off monsters crawled into these spaces. I reached the end of the tunnel, a wistful nostalgia overcoming me. The last time I walked through here, my mother still breathed, and my father was sober. They gave me a pack of peanuts and a coke to drink, and we watched baseball here. Those were better times.
Or were they? I let out a hiss at my recollection. We left the game early after I spilled some of that coke on my pants. My mother gave me a mouthful on the way back home, and my father even paddled me a few times. I was six, and I remember thinking it was complete overkill. Either way, the atmosphere from then beat this gloomy environment even if the memory wasn’t the best.
As I walked outside, the open sky beamed down onto us. The stadium cover opened up to white clouds and a cerulean sky. The rows of seats stretched for hundreds of feet down, the stairs creating little segments on each stair case. This was a baseball stadium, one with a grass field at the center. There was still grass, but the monsters made malevolence manifest.
A large hole opened at the center of the stadium. The gaping expanse led deep down until the edges of the pit blackened. The walls of the pit sheened red, their surface slimy and fleshy. A few writhing, giant insects darted on the walls, searching for food. The putrid tunnel lining stretched out from the entrance, a few tendrils of meat reaching the walls of the stadium.
At the beginning of this conversion from field to flesh, several named ones rested. One mirrored a humanoid mantis with cleaving, sharp arms and wings along its broad back. It hurt to look at its many mouthed mandibles as they drooled acid. Another reflected light from its metal feathers, dark mana oozing between glistening plates of steel. The last named one dwarfed the other two, and its hulking body hid behind the veiny membranes of two giant bat wings.
The rest of our group rallied beside me. Kessiah craned her neck to see. She mouthed,
“What in Schema is going on?”
Aatrox spoke in an echo of Torix’s voice,
“This is a portal reaching into some disgusting, consumed rift. It would seem that its general state has been hyper accelerated towards something mirroring an end-state eldritch, though it lacks that kind of utter malignance. As such, it serves as an important obstacle for us to overcome.”
I glanced back at the guard,
“You can talk through those guys?”
Aatrox laughed, a familiar sound coming from an unfamiliar body,
“Of course. Absolute free will is something only the most naive summoners participate in. These creations, while more than tools, aren’t fully sapient. I can arrest their attention should I need to do so. I would rather them be left to their own devices in most circumstances, but there are times where traversing terrain isn’t necessarily convenient. Ergo, I speak through it now.”
Aatrox cleared its throat.
“Back to the matter at hand. This is an odd mixture of ground up biomass and some kind of viral eldritch..”
Althea gulped.
“Viral eldritch?”
Aatrox interlocked his hands behind himself.
“But of course. The eldritch carry all manner of life forms, some large and others microscopic. This happens to be one of the viral variants. For that reason, it’s rather difficult to infiltrate safely. In fact, even Kessiah would likely have her augmented immune system overrun by it without protection.”
A bead of cold sweat dripped down my brow.
“So this will be spreading a plague that could wipe out humanity?”
Aatrox adjusted invisible glasses, ones that even Torix didn’t wear.
“Oh, there’s a reasonable chance that this could escalate to an untenable position for your kind. That being the case, I selected this as an obvious area for cleansing for just such a reason. We happen to have quite a plague destroyer on our hands as well.”
I glanced at the pit, “What is it?”
Aatrox lifted a finger into the air, mimicking Torix’s body language,
“It’s not a matter of what but of whom: you. These portals are much larger and more frequent in fringe worlds. They disperse viral payloads that can overwhelm nearby eldritch. After being turned, the hobbling beast will fuse into the mass hidden inside the disgusting entrance. They assimilate into a central mass that is attempting to eventually overtake the planet.”
I gulped.
“That’s...That’s horrifying.”
Aatrox grabbed his chin.
“I would agree were it not so fascinating. My own musings aside, the only absolute means of stopping the virus is to enter the portal and kill the rift keeper. Otherwise, the spread will infest the region and perhaps the world.”
I let out a sigh of relief,
“Oh, ok. So it’s basically just like a dungeon?”
“In essence, yes. It’s a dungeon were a viral strain has conquered the inside, and now it’s become a kind of belly for the beast. The primary difference lies in the virus which you are more than equipped to combat.”
I nodded.
“Oppression, huh?”
Kessiah took a quick breath before opening her dimensional storage. Kessiah pulled out a thick gas mask for her and Althea. They put the equipment on before Kessiah ruffled my hair.
“Oh yeah. You’re our little exterminator for beasties like this. Feels good, right?”
I winced at the pit.
“Not particularly.”
Kessiah scoffed.
“You’d better get used to it, Harbinger.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Oh, now I’m the Harbinger of Cataclysm. Great.”
I spread out my arms,
“But honestly, why does Schema make the dungeons the way they are if they just open up like this after a while?”
Kessiah took a quick breath, the mask letting out a mechanical wheeze.
“If we’re honest, we really don’t know for sure. There’s lots of theories, from limitations in its coding to training protocols when it was made. Either way, I’m glad it slows the eldritch down for a while. It gives us a fighting chance.”
From the rift at the center of the colosseum, a white centipede squirmed out. Large as a bus, it snatched one of the insects feeding against the wall of the rift. The smaller insect squealed before the centipede pinned it down, injecting liquid nitrogen into the creature. Cold fog and frozen blood erupted from the writhing insect, and it stilled. The centipede feasted on the bug. As the icy cold met the inset, the sound of its insides freezing matched the sounds of its screams.
The bug squealed like that for a solid minute, the icy centipede’s mandibles slowly munching away at the creature’s face while the victim lived through the torment. The insect squirmed, struggling to escape, but the centipede cared little for its prey’s pain. To it, the tinier bug was just a packet full of food, one ripe for the draining.
And this blood packet happened to scream.
Once the centipede grabbed onto an insect, it started feasting until it emptied the carrapace. After finishing, the centipede glanced around at the entrance of the rift. Its beady eyes met the named ones, but the centipede seemed satisfied. It was a full lion gazing at gazelle. While still the king of its domain, it desired rest more than refreshment, so it squirmed back into the tunnel, leaving icy spots where its feet touched the ground.
Torix murmured through Aatrox,
“I doubt most humans could handle such a thing, no?”
I nodded,
“Yeah. Most of us would be doomed. No, we’d definitely be doomed.”
Althea frowned,
“It’s so hard to fight inside those portals. You lose your HUD and all connection with Schema.”
I raised an eyebrow,
“You lose connection with Schema?”
Althea rubbed a bead of sweat from her neck.
“Yeah. I think it has something to do with the eldritch covering the entrance or something. You usually get some kind of update, but they’re really slow.”
I rolled my fingers across my palms, one finger following the other in a wave.
“That’s terrifying. No wonder fighting against a fringe world is so hard. If I’m honest, I’m beginning to wonder why you would bust into a portal and try to beat the rift lord in the first place. If you’re not connected to Schema, then you wouldn’t even get experience or anything.”
I squeezed an arm.
“You can’t see your health, stamina, or mana. With my pain tolerance, I won’t even know how close to death I am. Honestly, there’s all kinds of reasons not to go there.”
Torix nodded in Aatrox’s body, crossing the guard’s arms,
“Indeed, though experience is increased in those zones. However, it is delayed. Despite that incentive, most people consider these overwhelmed rifts to be a death sentence, especially considering how much people tend to rely on Schema’s assistance for most fights.”
Aatrox gazed at the entrance,
“Rifle men rely on him to aim. Fighters rely on him to streamline the use of their skills. Even mages rely on him to help ease the casting process. On the other hand, you and Althea don’t have to worry about those drawbacks as much as you’ve each taken precautions to avoid those pitfalls. For Daniel, you’ll experience more pain than normal. Althea, you’ll deal with nigh certain death if contaminated.”
Althea turned to him,
“What do you mean by Daniel and me? I thought it was just him?”
I turned to her,
“What do you mean just me?”
Althea turned to me,
“Of course it’s just you. You’re the, ‘Look at me, I live for battle,’ person. I just want this to be over with. Besides, how will I survive the eldritch virus?”
Aatrox tilted his head.
“You still have the conduit between you and Daniel. Excessive mana and other energies will be siphoned to him from you. He can also flash his aura over your body every few minutes. Combine that with the gas mask, and you should be more than fine. Any contamination can be removed, though if it sinks in, then the situation could become dire.”
Althea shrank, down,
“Oh man, heading into some virus flesh pit was the last thing I needed today.”
I took a sharp breath,
“Ok, have some perspective. You honestly think I want to crawl into a giant entrance into a different dimension?”
Althea coughed into her hand,
“Uh, kind of?”
I spread my arms, a bit of ascendance pouring into my runes.
“Who in the hell do you take me for?”
She shrugged,
“I don’t know. You’re…Uhm, a guy with parental issues, and you take it out on a tortured world, I guess?”
Her words were icy daggers stabbing between my ribs, and I turned away.
“Damn. That’s…Ok.”
Althea raised her hands,
“No, I mean you’re someone who…You’ve taken something awful that happened to you, and you’re using it as fuel instead of letting it eat you away from the inside. Most people would let that stop them from succeeding. You turned that weakness into a strength, and…I really admire that.”
Her words that had cut so deep seconds prior healed just as quickly. I stood taller, and I gave her a cautious smile.
“Thank you. You know, for clarifying.”
She murmured,
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“I don’t know, er, push through your past?”
Kessiah leaned in. I spoke with a shaky confidence.
“I don’t want to, but I will because I choose to. I believe that’s what makes us different from animals, you know? They thrive through instinct. As people, we can do more than just live based on desires. That ability separates us, and we become animals when we don’t take advantage of it.”
I raised my arms into the air,
“Besides, do you want to be at the mercy of all this forever? There’s a light at the end of this shit covered tunnel.” I pointed a finger at Althea and myself, “I say we can either stay in this shit covered tunnel, or we can move past it.”
Althea laughed.
“That analogy was…Colorful, but ok, ok, I’ll go.” She glanced up at Aatrox and laced her words with a bit more venom than I expected.
“Please tell me the next time you want to do something like this. Nobody likes awful surprises.”
Aatrox coughed into a hand,
“I’ll do my utmost to give forewarning, though this would never have been an easy message to deliver. At times, you will need a push, Althea. On the other hand, Daniel needs someone to curb his fervor. If you two could find a balance between each of your approaches, then perhaps you would find further harmony in your lives. Philosophical impositions aside-”
Aatrox pointed to the center of the stadium,
“It’s time for a little dive into the unknown. I’m sure the experience will be…Enlightening.”