Book 2 Chapter 4: A clue

Chapter 4: A clue

Jaeger fired shot after shot into a large abomination, its body filled the alley way he was running down. He would turn back and look for another route if he could but currently a large horde of undead were being kept back by a fence that stretched up to the 2nd floor of the scrapes on either side of it behind him.

He HAD to go down this route, that's what the map said.

Thus…

*blam* *blam* *blam*

Jaeger fired shot after shot into its massive torso. The creature stood at a whopping 19 feet tall, and all over its body were the heads of countless victims it had set upon in the past. Each arm was the thickness of a barrel, its legs were double that. If it had the chance, it would smack Jaeger into a pancake.

However, Jaeger couldn't let that happen. The only thing it could use right now were its legs, its arms were currently stuck in the adjacent walls on either side and unable to be brought out due to the thick concrete trapping them when it had swung its arms.

*vhoompsh* Jaeger disappeared from the creatures sight, as it looked at its right arm it saw Jaeger again touching the wall. The concrete slowly reformed itself as Jaeger used Mend. The creature could only watch as Jaeger vanished again, and repeated his barrage of shots on its torso.

Several minutes later, the creature slumped down like a fallen titan with a hole the size of a dinner table in its chest.

"Son of a bitch just wouldn't…fuck…" Jaeger looked back to the closed fence behind him, or rather the fence that was currently toppling as countless bodies pushed against its structure.

*ping* *pewoh* *ping*

Several of the brackets shot off in random directions and with the fog as a mirror the echo of metal striking metal rang out as each bracket and bolt was shot off like a bullet.

Jaeger slid through the slumped titans legs and continued down the alleyway. He didn't look back, even when he heard the sounds of countless undead tearing into the abominations flesh.

After a brief time of running, Jaeger turned around and kept a wary eye on the surroundings. When the coast was clear he picked the lock of a nearby under belly shop that hung below ground level to the sky scraper above it. With a soft click the door was shut, and Jaeger with it slumped to the floor with a wheeze.

With a flick the map display floated up into the air, more than several hundred X's were covering it. Each of these denoted portals, and with a click he could see what would be gained from them because they had already been explored or note on the map he was given. However, he was in no mood to step into one.

His eyes wandered as his finger traced several routes on the map, with each meeting up into the same point farther up. However, the difference between them was the length and what they ran through along the way.

Route A, as it was called, led through the sanctuary of Psyche.

Route B, through that of the sanctuary of Animus.

Lastly, Route C, the path through Entropy's sanctuary.

Lately people via a radio communication device that popped up out of nowhere began to discuss the happenstances on the current state of affairs in the abyss. The fog was becoming more deadly as creatures and everything alike began to grow stronger in the eternal gray. Sanctuaries for the three gods of mind, body, and spirit, had also arisen and created a perfect triangle across the city.

Jaeger had the choice of going through several spatial warped paths to each of the sanctuaries and still reaching his goal. It wasn't difficult to lead through the paths without going through a sanctuary but it would allow him to search for other champions and overall check out another sanctuary while stocking up.

'But which one?' Jaeger muttered as he looked around the shop, things were haphazardly moved about with signs of people in a rush to leave. Most places were like this now.

Jaeger grabbed a kicked over chair up from the floor and sat it down next to a table that was knocked over. With a sigh he kicked his legs up onto the edge of the table and tapped his arms with his fingers.

"I don't want…well I don't need to upgrade my spirit if that's what the god of spirit has to offer…my mind, well I don't think I have any abilities towards telepathy and telekinesis but I don't think it would befit me…upgrading my body might do me well since it's the medium for my power right?"

*flick* Jaeger lit up his smoke, but didn't seem to want to actually smoke and thus kept it hung over his arm while his other hand continued to tap his arm.

"Now that I think about it…or them…the upper echolons of the city haven't even been mentioned in any great regard. In fact since the moment I entered the fog, it would seem that they had ceased to exist. Why is that?... 'The King for All and the All for King' these two sound vaguely familiar. There was the two greatest corporate organizations in the abyss…it could be them…Ethos and Logos, I remember now."

Jaeger pulled out the sheet of paper and looked over the titled archetypes for a while.

"In fact…these names are too vague…anyone could fit the role of 'The Hero: Warrior'…what makes them stand out? Opportunistic moments? When shit hits the fan, true colors are shown?"

Even 'The Shadow: Alt-Shadow' had multiple meanings, did he have to find someone like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? The Jester: 'The now' is just as vague, doesn't that mean someone who doesn't give a flying fuck about anything and lives in the moment? I've met countless people like that.'

Jaeger finally moved the cigarrete to his mouth, after breathing out he let out a sigh and put out the smoke in the upturned table.

"Regardless, gotta keep going"

The front entrance door slowly creaked open and from it a head popped out and swiveled around before the rest of the body followed suit and stepped out to look eye level with the ground.

'Nothing around this time…gods help me, why did everything suddenly become stronger'

The first thing that Jaeger had noticed when he left the fog was that the undead didn't just hobble and wobble to move around, but full tilt sprinted after you if they caught wind of your presence by sight or sound. The fog seemed to obscure the scent of the body, but if you were bleeding, gods help you.

Jaeger rotated the pistol several times until it landed on 'Shot in the beyond'. A long slender rectangular box-like end appeared on the end of the pistol transforming it into a rifle, a scope that could see up to 500 meters accurately appeared at the top with an extremely thin holographic circle within the sight. Jaeger spun the chance chamber again until it landed on 'Known beyond' and then level the rifle on the ground level parallel with his shoulders.

"Shot in the beyond…I like that name of that" Jaeger thought for several moments, and then pulled the trigger letting loose a white projectile that unfurled into a paper airplane.

'I'll have to find out the limits of all my skills…' After a deep breathe Jaeger stepped back into the entrance and closed the door as his eyes shut tight.

His mind wandered, and from the paper airplane his vision was spread out like a panoramic view. Remote site was the greatest definition of the use of looking through an object from far away, and yet if Jaeger wanted to he felt he could probably try and smell what was around but that was just plain dumb.

With a spin to the bracelet 3 runes for lightning lit up on Jaeger's hand, and his brain entered a state of extreme computing. Time slowed to a crawl, and far more details were etched into his brain as the paper airplane floated down the long streets and past several corridors.

Jaeger could also seemingly manipulate the object he was using, and haphazardly piloted the paper airplane to fly about.

'Nothing? That is strange' then again, the large horde he had run from had probably attracted quite a few gazes from the surrounding blocks.

The paper airplane turned to particles of light and faded from the air like a dying firefly. Jaeger whirled the bracelet on his wrist before the last lightning rune flickered out, after the rejuvenation he steeled his nerves and hopped back out the door and up the small set of stairs to the street.

*click* *clack* *click* *clack*

'Damnit…' He was hoping for successive destruction, but got Neutral Glyph Imbuement instead.

He shook his head and leveled the rifle down the street, keeping a wary eye on the scrapes that ran up through the fog into the sky above. With ears wide open, Jaeger slowly made his way forward while looking up down left and right in that order.

"Guuahh…blaashck" Something wet and grotesque suddenly made a sound to Jaeger's far right down an alley. Jaeger moved quickly and quietly over to the corner, and peered his head around the edge until his eyes landed on the back of an undead eating a corpse on the ground.

Jaeger crept up and pulled his chain blade from the air, with a sick crunch the blade went through the undeads head like butter. The person was unknown and as such, Jaeger moved back out to the street and gazed left and right before continuing on his way.

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"How long are we going to hole up here?" A frail voice called out into the dark of a bar, beyond a zig zag path of alleys hidden behind buildings was a group holding up in a bar between a shop and a housing complex.

"I don't know okay…that big brick shit house almost got us killed…we sent out Adam to scout around, he should be back in a bit" The voice of a middle aged woman said with as much sympathy as possible.

"Fuck…I'd rather just go out there!" the first voice replied without shame.

She shook her head, "If you are impulsive…you will die" She took away the sympathy, and an icy air filled the bar as her voice echoed around.

"Fine…" After her words the voice calmed down.

*cerrkk*

"Who's there" The middle age woman whispered to the door as a faint bit of fog rolled across the floor like a sweeping creek tide.

They didn't hear a reply however after several seconds, just the sound of pattering sounds moving about the room.

"Hey…kiddo, are you still there" The woman whispered behind her to the young impulsive teen she had been talking to from before.

She didn't hear a reply from him either, a cold sweat broke out onto her back as she slowly turned and met eye to crimson eye with a strange looming entity. "Hey…you wouldn't happen to be Adam would you ha…" She blurted out momentarily before a massive glinting grin spread out the size of her shoulders before her.

"Ah…I see…"

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Jaeger heard a shrill scream coming down from an alley he walked by, from the sound of it the person was alone. He didn't hear any other voice, and thus assumed only a single person was being attacked.

From the distance, he could guess the sound was reverberating off the walls of the alley, probably several hundred meters ahead. Even if he used L3, he might not reach the person in time and if he was drawn into a spatial deviation he could end up far off track from his current journey.

'I'm sorry…' Jaeger muttered before walking past the alley and moving on down the street. Shop after shop ran on his left and right. Each shop denoted the buildings purpose above it, from his memory this would've been right below the center of the city amongst the trade district. The buildings and sky scrapers were the tallest at this place, reaching well over a 100 stories minimum or even several times that with ease before the tallest ones reached 250.

Some may ask how a building could reach an average height of 2,500 feet? Well if you took in the fact buildings were connected at the middle, creating a second raised city. Then the structural integrity of a building could reach even further with such a massive base as the Abyss.

Each shop on his left and right was merely a door and introduction items displayed for people at the lower level, however every story above that were made up of facilities and factories to create and refine materials to go up into the middle level for sales and use. Jaegers apartment had been the 9th floor, right below his districts middle level. For here however, the middle level only started at the 50th floor.

Over 500 feet up, and even then that was the sublevel of the middle level. The full in bloom level was up around the 75th level with everything in between a mix of walkways and paths that were wide and narrow. Circular platforms that reached between building after building created a long street up above with a view down below only every once in a while. Vendors covered this street like flies, selling wares and items. Every ten feet was some different form of entertainment packed into a building behind it.

Things could be found here, or maybe they couldn't but Jaeger didn't plan on climbing up that's for sure.

Abyss really was far too large, and now with the fact it was 'expanding' it would make it a true maze, where even the people like himself with good memory of most things within it at a loss.

'My home…just isn't the same I guess.'

Jaeger sighed and leveled the rifle before him as he continued on his journey. Sounds of slaughter only rang out every once in a while, even when Jaeger was close enough to try and stop it he was always too late. Most of the time, he couldn't join in because of the strange mutated creatures tearing into their victims.

'Even hell wouldn't be this bad' Jaeger watched a strange creature with a looming body hunch over a person and bite them in half at the waist. The legs dropped to the ground and spasmed for several seconds before ceasing. The creature turned around and from its chest a grin the size of an adults shoulder spread out while leaking out remnants of flesh and blood onto the stone ground beneath its feet.

It had no features for a face other than that of two blazing crimson eyes that had no eyelids or cheek bones. Its steps were soundless, and its gate was abnormal but it still moved at an inhuman speed with its long body.

Even the undead were hunted by this thing, flocking to try and kill it but failing miserably as old withered flesh was flung to the surroundings without pause.

"I guess even monsters have monsters" He shook his head and leveled the rifle in the opposite direction before pulling the trigger. A rune several hundred meters away lit up on a piece of steel hanging from the middle section far above.

Its glow didn't catch the creature's attention, but after Jaeger continued to pull the trigger on the same spot over and over that same rune began to enlarge and the light it gave off also grew to the point of looking like a street lamp from up above shining down.

Jaeger looked around and quietly bent down and picked up a stone, throwing it in the direction under the light.

The creature continued to rip up the bodies around it, dead or alive. However, the rock was never meant to catch its attention but in fact to attract the attention of a nearby undead.

Hearing the sound of the rock, and seeing a bright light shining through the hazy fog above an undead slowly made its way forward on a broken leg covered in dilapidated clothing. It looked up like a confused deer, not knowing how to reach the strange light.

Jaeger waited patiently like a hunter watching over his trap awaiting a slaughter. The strange chest grinning creature swiveled and seemed to sense the undead under the light, the closer it got to the creature the more it arched itself into a stance ready to pounce.

*crack*

Its long bony arms dug into the cobbled stone street and shot its body forward, mists parted as its shadowy figure in the grey haze was a blur of motion. It spread its arm out like an eagle.

*BOOM*

The stone beneath the undead broke out into a tidal wave of earth and sediment as a hand the size of a vehicle smashed through the surface and caught the undead and its predator in a vice grip. It flexed its arm, causing ripples of bulging veins to appear in a flash before a sickening crunch sound was let out from the captured pair.

Jaegers mouth dropped as his heart immediately sped up.

"What in the fuc…" He didn't even have time to curse as more cobble stone was moved like sand, the massive figure of an abomination came forth from beneath like a demon out of a shredded hole of darkness. It rose from the dust cloud surrounding the level of the street, and two lantern like eyes scanned the surroundings.

"ROOARRRR" The mist and dust cloud around it exploded outwards like a wave as it let loose a roar from what seemed like a volcano brewing inside it.

'Bloom' Jaeger didn't have the gall to speak it, and merely gave thought to activate the glyph.

A lightning bolt as thick as a barrel shot downwards , its heavenly tribulation washed over the abomination and cascaded across its grotesque physique and rippling muscles.

It shuddered before collapsing backwards, causing the timid fog that had barely begun to inch back in to fly back out twice as fast.

Jaeger let out a breath of relief as he held his chest tightly with his hand.

*crrk….* His eyes whipped over to the fallen abomination again, only to see it rising from the ground and casting its crimson glowing eyes towards Jaeger. The light, was truly like that of a lantern, shining brightly in its blood color against the fog for a good 40 feet.

"Oh fuck you!" Jaeger shouted towards the abomination.

"ROARRRR" Was seemingly the only thing the massive abomination knew how to say in reply.

It took one large step forward, its height was probably well over 40 feet. Strangely its arms were far from average length as they hung low enough to touch the ground like that of an ape, yet the rest of the body was just proportionate enough to carry its body weight.

'Ah…that's how it runs' Jaeger thought as the earth quaked with each monstrous leap and smash of the monstrosities arms against the ground.

'It WAS like an ape, I really freaky gross ass muscle building freak on a leash ape.'

Jaeger spun his bracelet and vanished from the spot, slowing time down, his legs began to move at great speeds carry his fading image away. 6 blocks later, Jaeger checked his watch quickly and then spun the bracelet again.

"What has this place turned into?" Jaeger asked as the words escaped his mouth and carried far behind him with the wind.

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A gate of light broke the haze of grey that clouded the streets of Abyss. A lone figure with his gun held shoulder height walked forward slowly before passing through this gate into open air.

"Ah…fuck…" Jaeger took a deep breath in, not minding the gazes momentarily casted his way.

"Who are you" A burly voice asked from not far away with a staff pointed directly towards Jaeger's chest.

"Do anything…and I'll kill you and all your friends hiding in the rooms left and right of me" Jaeger smiled mischievously, but this was hidden by the mask he had put on before stepping forth into the sanctuary.

The man arrogantly shouted back, "Who knows if I have more people, all I know is that I could kill you easily. Shut your mouth, who the fuck are you." He angrily shouted back. He was barking, but he surely didn't try anything lest Jaeger put his words into action.

"Anywho… on whose authority are you guarding a gate into a sanctuary" Jaeger asked very cool headed, even deactivating 'shot in the dark' while putting the pistol back under his armpit and tossing his trench coat to the sides as he put his hands in his pockets.

The burly man stepped further into view, rippling muscles covered his body. In some ways he was like that abomination outside, yet obviously far smaller in comparison.

He slowly lowered a red crystal tipped staff towards the ground, but still appraised Jaeger a bit.

"You've never been to this sanctuary…you wouldn't know what happened then. Tsk…my bad…come on out everybody." He yelled this over his shoulder while keeping one eye trained on Jaeger.

Over 200 people stepped out from the surrounding builds that lined the wide alley way that was the entrance path to the sanctuary. Unlike the Y section configuration that Enigma's sanctuary had. The god of body, Entropy, had a sanctuary more in the shape of a circle with an X layed over it.

The central area housed a building that went up about 4 floors and covered over a third of the central area from its most central point. Its look was like that of a watch tower mixed with a tool booth or bridge pass tower. With arcing windows at the top, and several balconies poking out left and right. Around it was a road that was bent just a bit on each side. Jaeger had stepped through the gate at the left most bottom side, with several shops and thick brick walls on each face. The scrapes and buildings around the area still went far into the sky, but not as high as the most central zone Jaeger had just come from.

Jaeger walked forward a bit more, and without a care in the world carried on past the man before stepping into the central area. His gaze turned to the right, seeing somewhat of the same picture of a route on his far right.

"I remember this place…this isn't the central hub…it's the North Central." Jaeger muttered.

The burly man scoffed and turned around to soldier the gate again. A woman amongst the large group of people came up to Jaeger and looked him up and down before speaking her mind, "Yes…this was originally the North Central area"

"The whole 'Forms a triangle between mind…body…and spirit…' makes sense now. The other gods of Spirit and Mind occupy the Eastern Central, and Western central I'm guessing" Jaeger lit up his smoke and glanced at her.

'North central' was a well known hub of communication with the whole area of the north, making up a third of the central knowledge connection and routes leading to the northern parts of the city and over west and east to the edges. There was no 'Southern Central' as the roads never met down there in the middle.

The east and west central hubs split the lower half of the city respectively.

North Central was merely a convergence of the 4 main roads through the city. It wasn't the far north, but it was definitely above the central point of the city and thus was called North as the first part of the name. The Eastern central was a dead end of sorts, where two roads met and formed a bow, with the Western Central being a mirror image of it.

"What brings you here, to seek physique?" She asked with a smile.

"That…kinda rhymed in a weird way, its pleasant to the ears and yet very pointed." Jaeger smiled as he breathed out a large puff of smoke into the slightly cold air.

"You probably weren't just strolling around sightseeing…" She sarcastically replied to him without batting an eye.

"Holy…that smell…the pistol…your Jaeger aren't you??" Her eyes split open before Jaeger even turned fully to face her.

"How do you know that" Jaeger asked flatly.

"Across the Abyss radio stations were set up in each of the sanctuaries as a quest by the god Genome. After a connection was made to the sanctuary of Enigma, the first thing they did was tell everyone a man cleared the central portal there, and was most likely favored by the god there…how have you not known this?" She shook her head while squinting her eyes.

"Ah…I never asked." Jaeger felt like slapping his forehead, he could've just called ahead and asked what was here!

"Yeah…the main station is manned by someone new…we like him more, because well…he is very persuasive in his ways of communication. That station is in Genomes Sanctuary…many died to get the parts spread out across the city, but with each place he connected to a new band of people spread out to make the stations and it went pretty well after the third time around…they described you as a pistol wielding man who smokes something vanilla and wears a cape over a trench coat. I was only guessing…"

"Ah…I never told them to keep their mouth shut…" Jaeger shook his head.

"So…what…does bring you here? This sanctuary doesn't have a portal to clear." She more respectfully this time asked.

"I am not some demigod of a mage blessed by Enigma to rule the school of drool. I'm just an investigator, looking for people, and trying to figure things out while helping myself out as well as those who I can"

"I see…so uh…what are you currently investigating? Can I help?" She asked as a twinkle flashed over her eye.

'This chick wants to ride my coat tails, and we only just met…sheesh.'

"First, why are their abominations and monstrosities…why is the difficulty of the fog changing, or rather that that lies within it? Secondly, do you have a place here to sit down and chat, I had a long run on the way here you see…" He smiled self mockingly, but to her it sounded like he just went through some arduous journey.

"Yes…unlike the other sanctuaries the three gods of mind, body, and spirit, have areas they branch out into. There isn't some super natural tavern to hold up in, or a scientifically enhanced residence…the buildings around the 4 routes leading into the central zone are also a part of the sanctuary…in fact, if you go to the far side of the buildings you can see out windows into the fog"

"That…I'm betting nobody sleeps in those rooms" Jaeger smiled.

"Yes…people have awoken to see things staring at them in the night from outside. Some were even enchanted to leap out the windows to their deaths, before those rooms were sealed shut."

"Oh fuck" Jaegers smile froze.

"Yeah…come with me." She turned around and led him around the central building in the main area, walking around the right bend and towards the top right most route adjacent to the one Jaeger came out of .

She waved at several people in passing, and led Jaeger into a bar that was thin in entrance and long in body within. The bar itself had a counter that stretched 5 feet from the door all the way to the end with swivel seats that wrapped around the other side of the counter. 3 men and 2 women were currently serving drinks to a group of people, while behind their backs others filled tables that lined the wall.

Overall, it was a dive bar and yet not a dive bar.

At the very back of the bar, Jaeger was brought through the counter which swung up to hang on the wall. Beyond the counter was a door most likely for closet space, but as Jaeger stepped through he realized right off the bat it had been converted for other purposes. Even the building the bar was up against and apart of as a corner, was broken through with several walls missing. They practically expanded the bar; giving it two sides, with the entrance into the next space the door at the end of the bar.

Strange way to lay out things, but as Jaeger took a glance he understood why. A round table was set into the middle of the room and surrounding it was several cloaked figures and large physique men with weapons of varying sizes on their backs or at their sides.

It was almost…to cliché.

"Everyone…this is Jaeger, THE Jaeger." The woman clapped, bringing the attention of the room shining directly on the unwilling man behind her.

All of the men nodded to Jaeger, while some even stood straight up out of their seats before walking over to shake his hand.

"You'll be of great help to our cause…if that's what you're here for…?" A man who stood out from the rest was the first to ask Jaeger of his intentions, the woman who had led Jaeger here had mysteriously left with a smile plastered on her face.

'Gods…fuck that woman' Jaeger muttered.

Jaeger looked around the table and walked over to an empty seat before sitting down, "Everyone sit…I have some questions"

The 'leader' of the group cocked his head sideways a bit before nodding and grabbing a seat adjacently across the table from Jaeger.

"So?" He asked while lighting up a cigar.