Catacombs Pt3

This tactic managed to buy me a short window of opportunity to close the distance down to a few hundred feet.

However, hundreds of tentacles soon formed up and down from the floor and ceiling to fill almost every inch of airspace with their disgusting reach. Instead of reaching out to attack they simply reached straight from the floor or ceiling, giving up on attempting to catch me as I am forced to veer sideways and fly along the wall of tentacles blocking me out.

Speed did not help anymore at this point, every tentacle had formed and closed at the same time so there was no seam to attempt racing. There were no trap openings to test my Luck with so there was no chance of simply passing through. I had no choice but to cheat.

Angling my body sideways and out away from the wall of tentacles I flap once to shoot straight back into the previous masses of tentacles that were now reorganizing to resume their attacks. However, I only spent a split second in their reach before flapping back toward the tentacle wall. This time, though, I was channeling mana into my weapons.

"360 Splash Geist," I almost sigh in a whisper, unleashing hundreds of MP in the form of a 360 Edge that creates an expanding eclipse of watery spiritual energy cutting through everything within a hundred yards of my position. I did not wait around to watch the effect, though, but flew off in pursuit of my attack as it slashed into the tentacle wall and began unleashing furious storms of wet phantom blades from every tentacle.

The heart of the catacombs itself was shaking as water and spiritual mana stormed through everything around me, ripping apart the giant tentacles all around in dozens of places to open a path. Now, though, I was forced to fly with the same care as before. My thermal Air Cannon spells were now used to blow decaying tentacles out of the air around me while I flapped up, down, left, and right in the hopes of moving forward.

Several chunks of tentacles as big as my body still managed to smack into me, usually clipping my legs while my metalloid wings scythed through everything they came into contact with. Now that the tentacles were in pieces and decaying, the slime had lost all resistance. However, just those handful of pieces that did manage to make contact were enough to send my flopping or flipping in a new direction every now and then.

Luckily I still had a quarter of a tank of magic so I could use my Telekinesis to continually right myself. If not, I would have probably been buried early on in the chum storm. By the time I manage to break free of the chum storm to find the central prism prison in reach, I had achieved a new level in Aerial Combat.

For the first time since I entered the catacombs I was finally forced to land in the nastiness, alighting down only a few dozen feet away from the caged and biomass-shrouded figure. "Can you hear me? Are you aware?" I ask loudly and uncertainly, tightening my grip on my swords as I start making my way forward. "Sir Pence?"

My previous questions had not managed to elicit a response from the imprisoned figure, however, when I said the name behind the divine object I was supposed to be questing for the entire cage contracted and the figure inside vaguely trembled. It wasn't the trembling of fear, but the sporadic trembling of futile effort and exhaustion.

Whatever was inside had probably been sleeping and I just got its attention. Now, it was attempting to regain awareness. As well, the biomass seemed to once again remember my presence.

The ground underneath my feet churned a split second before my stomach, stretching upwards to form tentacles of different sizes with steadily darkening outer flesh. As soon as this started taking place I was back in the air and processing a mana concentrate stored in my body to refill half of my MP. As if to spite my preparedness, the tentacles did not attack but instead reached toward one another to begin twisting and writhing into different shapes.

Eventually, several bodies began to form but instead of the previous mantis-squid forms these bodies were all humanoid in shape and size with oddly bulky areas that looked like pieces of armor. Incomplete armor. An incomplete replica of MY armor, actually.

Before the first body even had time to form I was lashing out, knowing full well that anything based off of me by this world threatening existence would probably threaten my existence. The first replica Life Hack was parted from shoulder to waist with a basic Water Cutter that swept straight through and into some of the layers of bars in the living prison.

Even as the second was suffering under an 'X' of crossed spiritual water skills, the prison itself began twisting and writhing about as a large chunk of outs outer and inner wall fell away and decays. That same X slash, though, passed straight through the second replica that had not fully formed and into the biomass cage.

The figure inside was now moving, no longer trembling but instead fully bending its arms and legs while fighting against its weakening restraints. As the third replica was dispatched, it briefly occurred to me that maybe- just maybe- I was about to unleash an endgame level hidden boss that was supposed to be 'scenery' in this dungeon. Maybe, just maybe, I was about to shit on a spinning fan blade.

Sadly, it was too little too late to worry about that as the third obscurely combined 'Splash Geist Slash' turned the nearly completed third replica into biomass sushi chunks. Just like both of its predecessors, the attack kept going right through the enemy and into the bars of the cage.

Just like all the times before, the bars of the cage began breaking down and the strength of the full-body shackling around the figure inside continued weakening. Now, though, the replicas were completed and in motions so I had to work a little harder. Only a little.

These replicas were wielding squishy clubs in lieu of swords but they strength was so great that the first to manage hitting me with their literal slap stick took a ten-percent chunk of my health away. I had no choice but to build up a thick layer of ice mana scales. Not only to boost my defenses but to counteract the slimy weapons and bodies.

Much as I had hoped, simply kicking the replica who slapped me with their tentacle sword was enough to solidify the biomass of its chest. This solidified biomass even cracked up as if it had already petrified as the two-hundred-plus-pound replica was sent flying backward.

My swords did not need any assistance beyond All-Tox, allowing them to breeze through the tentacle weapons while splashing liquid toxins on their bodies that decayed through like acid. As the next few attacks were taken and dished out, limbs and weapons belonging to the replicas had lost mobility from my icy defenses while being broken or cut away.

Out of the original seven replicas being formed, only two remained by the time I finally got to the cage in person. Then one of them was cut down from head to toe, split right down the middle as my toxins splashed through and onto some of the bars of the cage.

Spinning low around the broken point of the remaining replica's solidified tentacle sword, I rise up around behind their arms as they struggle to balance on a solidified back leg. A harsh elbow was all it took to knock the replied over into the bars of the cage before unleashing a perfectly vertical Water Cutter. The cutter not only passed through them but also the bars of the cage and even an inch or two into the shrouded figure beyond.

Once water came into contact with the body shackles the layers of twisted tentacles began decaying and the figure within began thrashing about almost freely. Before long the biomass around one arms and the side of the figure's chest began petrifying instead of decaying. Then it began fragmenting and dusting away.

An arm of golden and slimy bone was exposed after a few moments, followed by a shoulder and chest wrapped in what looked like a white silk. Then the biomass continued decaying as the figure began pulling their arms and knees in toward their body.

As the biomass broke away, the silk was revealed to be covered in shimmery gold embroidery along its edges framing patterns of strange characters and symbols. The silk was not large, only long enough to wrap two or three times about their torso to cover much of the skeletal body. However, there was plenty of shining gold bones exposed between the wraps of broad silk.

Only as the first arm and leg broke free and the silk began falling away did it occur to me that this was the aegis mantle I was questing for. Worn by the one and only Sir Pence who had apparently become a golden skeleton in this dungeon. We had actually turned all of the cathedral NPC into black crystalline skeletons, so I had no right to complain.

All the people who used to follow this Sir Pence, though, would have plenty to complain about as humanoid creatures.

How did Sir Pence' people turn into bio-freaks while Sir Pence came back shiny and gold? I honestly could not even be arsed to care about it at this point. All I knew was that I needed this guy to do something about this dungeon so I could do something about that cape that was now flowing out behind him even in the windless dungeon.

As the golden skeleton managed to free his arms and then legs from their suspended shackles, their spotlessly clean yet slimy skull slowly turns in my direction. Once we made eye contact, small white flames appeared in the centers of Sir Pence' hollow sockets. Then they stood slowly upright from the floor and started walking forward.

A ghostly whisper every bit as strong or even stronger than the head priest NPC's telepathy suddenly invaded my mind, posing a simple question. "Did you free me?"

"Are you Sir Pence?" I ask in response, wanting to verify that I had not just smashed open the floodgates on myself.

Nodding once slowly, the skeleton comes to a stop only a few feet away from me before looking around the catacombs. Now, the places of the fighting units were reversed. The biomass creatures were all trying to get to us while the humanoid creatures were doing their best to hold them back.

However, before Sir Pence could even make heads or tails of the current events there came the rumble of a dull and distant thunder. Looking back the way I had come, I soon find the source of that rumbling. A little earlier than I had anticipated, roughly a thousand battle ready humanoid figures spilled out of the jumbled tunnels and into the slimy heart of the catacombs.

In that area that nearby confrontations taking place were already sided against the biomass creatures thanks to my earlier involvement. The new humanoids simply plowed through the remaining biomass creatures in their area. Moments later, more than a thousand humanoids were splitting up to run circuits around either side of the catacombs.

"My brothers…" the telepathic whisper of Sir Pence sighs in my mind. "They have fought so hard… for so long. They have earned some rest."

"Then help me end this," I cut in gently, looking down and around at the prism platform. "Tell me what needs to be done. The sooner we get it over with, the better."

"You don't know?" Sir Pence asks sharply, looking at me again before angling his head to survey the air around me as if reading my mana. "Nobody has told you… are you sure you can do this? This rift between realms was opened at the cost of life and the same price remains to close it. We no longer live and you… you may not even be enough."

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