234. One Man Army (I)

Lan clenched his teeth. "It's been taken care of."

"How so?" said the Ancestor.

"Ideally she'll die in the dungeon," said Lan. "That remains the most likely possibility. If not I'll simply subdue her—just as I did the last Mistress. Plans have already been set in motion."

"You're confident in this?"

"Of course." Lan was sure not to hesitate. "There is only one rather large obstacle to eliminate for either to occur. The rest is relatively simple."

Eldrin Arandor regarded him with cold flat eyes. "You have free reign," he said at last. "Do what you must."

Lan gritted his teeth. And nodded.

***

ꜱᴜᴘᴇʀᴅᴜɴɢᴇᴏɴ

Zane and friends headed down the staircase.

It was so hot they all began to sweat minutes in. The walls, the floors, slowly went to black. Like the stone had been baked so long it had lost all color.

There was a tangible feeling of despair riding the smoke that thickened the air—you could breathe it in, feel it dragging at your soul…

Reina was the first to notice something was wrong. She saw it in the density of the essence—it was far thicker than before. Far thicker than it should be. And the auras wafting up to them…

They were nothing close to those in Floor 62. She frowned. It didn't seem right that there should be so big a jump.

They kept descending. New fumes tainted the air, black, sootlike, noxious. Whatever they touched hissed, started to melt. Even the stones, the walls, the floors themselves, leaving oily puddles all over. Soon the air was laced with this stuff. It was impossible to avoid breathing it in.

Then it tried melting Zane too.

Stabbing at his skin. Stabbing at his insides, a kind of acid-poison trying to tear him apart at the seams—but Zane was held together by stronger stuff than the walls, or the stones. It couldn't touch him.

Except for the parts that were not so tempered. He felt it going into his lungs, sitting there heavy as boulders, searing him from the inside, getting into his guts, stabbing at his heart—even going up his throat trying to get out his brain—it was everywhere.

Reina was on it fast, though. She cast a purifying glow on him. On all of them. A warm light that melted away the black, left him feeling like he'd just gone through a nice sauna. She kept casting and the glow suffused them all, a constant shield driving back the smog.

It would make healing a little harder for her. But she could hold it for a while, she said, brow knitted with the effort. It just took some concentrating.

Either they found some way to counter this stuff, or they made it through the floor fast. Zane didn't want to stress her.

And that smog was only thickening the deeper they went. Until—

you have entered:

𝔽𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕣 𝟟𝟚

𝕀𝕟𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕒

That came as quite a shock to Reina too—in all the logs she'd read, the staircases only went down one floor.

"Something isn't right," she said, biting her lip. She felt they were being messed with. Zane wasn't sure what to make of it.

There was only one way forward either way.

The staircase soon leveled out—and started going up. Breaking into a sooty tunnel. Arching toward the surface.

You could just about make out the sky—a blazing smear of bloody-red…

𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕊𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝟙-𝟙

ℙ𝕝𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔼𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝔻𝕒𝕞𝕟𝕖𝕕

***

The Barbarian Sage smashed his cask on his throne, sloshing yet more wine onto the floor. His cheeks had gone all ruddy—he was quivering in rage as he spluttered. "What in the Nine Hells is that?!"

"I'm not sure," said the Head Scout, frowning too. "That's… highly unusual."

"That's tampering, is what it is!" snarled the Sage. "Blatant tampering! Has the System fallen asleep?! Do your job, damn you!"

But other than shaking his fist at the sight, the Sage could only steam. At this point there wasn't much he could do.

"The aid's already been sent, right?" he grumbled.

"Yes, Sage," said the Scout.

He harrumphed. "At least it'll even the odds. It'd better get there in time. You know those bastards have got something nasty planned…"

***

The tunnel opened up into an abject wasteland. Soot, cracked blackened earth roasted beyond all recognition, blood-red sky. Scorching heat-waves rolled across the land. In the distance they saw raging tornados—vortexes of molten-red fire and white lightning and soot—howling across the landscape…

It wasn't just the wind doing the howling. If you squinted you could make out hordes ghostly pale faces popping out of them, screaming before being dragged back in…

There were souls trapped in this soot too. At least, chunks of them. Zane could feel them in the Astral Plane—but he could also see them as he waded through it. Feel them reaching out with pale ectoplasm fingers, grabbing at his ankles—they couldn't break far from surface. Strange ghostly fingers reached out, grasped for the skies like some perverse grass…. Evan squeaked at the sight of them. Rivers of lava broke up the landscape.

Then there was the air. Infested with that strange rotting smog. There were gaping scars in the air infested with the stuff. Hanging there permanent. If you got too close it would start sucking in life force, draining at your Health fast. They gave those chunks of wide berth.

Fire, plus that weird element which Reina named 'Corruption'—she felt it was some kind of higher-tier Law—seems to be the dominant elements here.

The land was strangely barren. Not a Monster in sight. The mini-map compass pointed them forward though. So they followed it. One direction looked much like another.

Zane wondered how long the journey would be. There really weren't many landmarks. A mountain range in the distance, bleak hills cut out against blood skies. The whole place felt like a kind of purgatory.

Then he frowned, stopped, looked up.

"What is it?" said Reina.

For a second there he swore he felt a gaze pass over him… saw some faint outline in the Astral Plane, some massive eye of the soul, staring down at him. It vanished as soon as he looked for it.

No one else felt anything. Not even Avery, which was unusual. Usually she was the one picking up on this stuff.

Weird.

They kept walking, eyes peeled.

Avery jumped a little when the notification came up. Then she actually read it.

𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕗𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕣𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕖, 𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕝𝕠𝕔𝕒𝕝 𝕘𝕒𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕔 𝕔𝕝𝕦𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕓𝕖 𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕞𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕕 𝕚𝕟 𝕒𝕚𝕕 𝕡𝕒𝕔𝕜𝕒𝕘𝕖𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤. 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕖𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕤𝕦𝕔𝕙 𝕡𝕒𝕔𝕜𝕒𝕘𝕖 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 𝕥𝕨𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕪-𝕗𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕤.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝕕𝕣𝕠𝕡 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕨𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕪-𝕗𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕤.

Oh, cool.

They kept going, trekking across this strange apocalyptic landscape—until Avery gave another start.

This time, though, it was for real.

She squinted, frowned. Then went quite pale. "Uhhhh," she said. "Yeesh! That's… a lot."

She had detected some auras coming out east—a huge glut of them. They were still a ways off, hundreds of miles. But closing in at speed.

"What are they?" said Reina, frowning too.

"Demons. Er—at least two Monster Knights, and… I think they're both over Level 300?" Avery shook her head. "They're a lot stronger than those chumps we just fought, that's for sure."

"Hmm," said Zane.

"There's tons of high-Level-200 Monsters there too. Demons. Gross-looking. Like really rotted dinosaurs got reanimated."

Apparently, those Monsters were definitely heading in their direction.

Reina wondered if they were tracking auras. Got Avery to try her best to cloak them, shoot off fakes, simulacra, to throw off the scent. They went another little while.

It did not appear to be working, according to Avery.

Zane thought he knew why. He looked up every so often—he could still feel that enormous gaze locked onto them.

It meant trouble. He had a feeling they weren't hiding from it no matter what they tried.

They would just have to up the pace.

Evan picked up Avery on piggyback. Zane carried Reina. They bolted for it, trying to loop around west, keep some distance between them and the Monster horde as they sprinted toward the next floor.

Soon, though—"Stop!" cried Avery.

She frowned West. "Wha the heck?" Then paled. "Huhhh?"

"There's more?" said Reina.

"A lot more—another two Level 300-plus Monster Knights! And an army just as big…"

"…They're trying to herd us," said Reina. She looked worried.

So they would have to go due north. In the direction of the compass. And just try to outrun both armies.

"I get the sense that's exactly what they want us to do," said Reina darkly. She wasn't sure they had a choice though. Wherever they went it seemed like that eye could find them. If these things were going to catch them eventually, might as well be as close to the exit as they could be.

She didn't like it. But it was looking like they had to go for it. She just suspected they would find a nasty welcome once they got there.

There was a silence as they all chewed over that thought.

Avery tried to lighten the mood.

"Well," she said at last. "It doesn't matter how many of those things they're throwing at us! We've got one Zane! Right big fella?"

And she gave him a slap on the back. She was less confident than she sounded. Zane understood. Every 100-Level bottleneck was quite a big jump. They had never faced a Level 300 before—much less several. If something like that awaited them…

None of them were very confident.

That was fine. He would be confident enough for the rest of them.

"Leave it to me," rumbled Zane, nodding. "It will take a lot more than that to bring me down." He said it like it was a simple fact.

They were still a little nervous. But they believed him. They kept moving.

Sure enough, not half an hour later—just as they were speeding down the slopes of a dusky mountain range into the soot-stained valley below…

Avery cursed.

"Incoming," she said. "Out in front…"

This time they could see it. A line of black cresting the distance, flashing white, like storm clouds approaching….

It was looking like they couldn't avoid a fight, Reina thought.

"Then we won't," said Zane.

Reina hesitated. Then nodded. She felt it was the best way too, strategically. If anything, it would be better if they took this head-on—if they could break through the army ahead, and outrun the ones coming from the sides. If they got caught between the three of them it would be the worst of every world.

So they put Zane as the battering ram. Out in the front.

There was only one problem with the plan. Zane's strongest weapon was still his Chains—the only ones that had gotten a full upgrade, with new special Skills. But they were a one-on-one tool. To take out an army, he needed something for the masses.

And he had just the Skill.

He had never used it with his new Core. Or his new Weapons. Or his new Stormfire.

"Stay back," he told his friends.

This one took some time to get going.

***

The Demon army was all rotted corpses, black-and-white—enormous bones sticking through black rotted skin, black rotted muscle. Shambling creatures. Dripping, oozing corruption. They conformed to no recognizable shape—stitched together of many different giant animal-parts, dinosaur-tails here, bat-wings there, Franken-creatures, some on two legs, some stumbling on three, four, five…

All were massive, though. All heaved fiery essence and tar-like corruption. All had the same red eyes.

ℂ𝕠𝕣𝕣𝕦𝕡𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝔻𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕟

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟠𝟘

Dozens of them. Slobbering, dragging themselves on, moving at speeds that belied their shambling awkward gaits.

At their fore were two Monsters. Both Monster Knights. These were the only creatures that vaguely resembled animals—the first, a giant spider smoking up with corruption-shadows. The second, a mammoth laden with plates of dense bone, a natural battle-armor. In the Astral Plane both burned far brighter than anything else there—their warped souls woven deeply into their warped flesh…

Nascent Soul beasts.

Blitz tornados, all soot and fire and fury, ran the distance, greedily sucking souls straight out of the ground. They matched the mood of the marchers. A great hunger simmered over them all…

Then this giant procession halted. Puzzled.

It seemed there was foul weather on the horizon.

A tornado was drawing closer. Bigger than any they had ever seen. So close it was starting to snatch soot-clouds out of the sky—so close they saw it drawing in other tornados, burning them up, using them as yet more fuel—

Its essence was unusual. Not just because it was far more than a tornado should have.

The color was a piercing blue-white.

It crackled. It boomed. It rumbled. Burgeoning at a shocking pace. But most of all it shrieked. Not the shrieks of souls—but of very heavy things, slicing at vast speed through still air…

It ran straight into another tornado. For a second the explosion lit it up bright—and in the light they saw the silhouette of a man. Well-built, swirling chains clenched in his two fists.

A man coming straight for them.