Many warriors who found their way to an early grave did so because they underestimated their enemies. Robert was in one such situation. The giant didn't seem bothered by them but that did not imply it wasn't aware they existed. It only meant it found something more interesting to do. Like killing the people sent to explore the passage that opened on earth.
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POV: Passage exploration team, Earth side.
The passage that opened yesterday announced its arrival with great fanfare. It sucked everything in a three hundred feet radius, leaving a massive spherical crater behind. The black disk floating in the air taunted anyone daring to explore what laid beyond.
The city lord examined the new passage. Earth affinity Archs created a bridge leading to it. A team of explorers, all of them two-star veterans, went in but none returned.
"We lost cable tension," one of the technicians shouted. "Tethers one through six are slacking."
"Reel them in!" Came the order from the supervisor.
The support staff worked like a well-oiled machine. They turned the cranks and pulled the tether cables. Moments later, the passage regurgitated the frayed end of the cables. Not the people they had attached to the other end. Something rough split the high-strength fibers that could resist sharpened steel.
"Reel all of them back! On the double! Send the signal to abort the delve!"
People shouted in coordinated chaos. Each one of them knew what they had to do; they knew the risks of staying so close to an unknown passage. And yet they pushed their fear aside and did their job with aplomb. The winches squealed. The remainder of the cables brought their charges with them. None of them alive. All of them skewered with spears of a substance resembling rocks, colored gray with veins of navy blue.
Entering the Netherecho, the city lord was shocked at what he saw. He started to shout orders. "Put a sample spear in stasis, toss the remainder back through the passage. Seal the passage. It's too dangerous. Prepare a strike team."
This passage better be profitable. Securing it would be a nightmare. But if two-star elites went in and came out dead minutes later, there was no hope of rescuing the Samson heiress. That old lady would not be happy. No, sir.
He could barely afford any disturbance in the order now. With the Kraven patriarch missing, his assets were up for the taking. Janhalar was a fool. His obsession with that unique Bloodshed spirit became his doom. The Blood patriarch was last seen in the landfill, searching through mountains of garbage. Eyewitnesses reported he entered into a tunnel of his own making, going deeper and deeper in search of something, only to never come back.
Now, his insiders in the Kraven clan reported he was believed dead. What an opportunity.
Basilisk, the city lord, smiled. It was time to pay the Kraven Faralethal headquarters a visit and offer them some "help." It would also keep him out of sight of the Samson matriarch for a while. May the old lady grieve her great-granddaughter's death in peace and leave him alone.
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Robert and Amanda reached the giant's shoulder. The corpses of the passage explorers fell past them, vanishing in the depths of the realm.
"We need to climb down."
He felt the mental connection click into place. Grabbing Amanda, he lifted her and jumped, crossing over to the liminal void mid-air. He didn’t want to find out if the giant would survive in there.
Two spotlights shone on them from above. As he looked in the direction the light was coming from, he saw two inhuman eyes peeking into them. The eyes had a big slitted pupil with seven smaller pupils around the bloodshot irises. The light was coming from the cornea.
He ran to the side. The light slowly tracked them.
The liminal void was a place in-between reality and the true void. If powerful entities from below could visit it, why not powerful entities from above?
"Amanda, climb on my back and hold tight," he commanded.
"Okay."
Once she was firmly in place, he started to climb down. Half an hour later, the light shone on them again. The giant could move on the liminal void but at a much slower speed. And yet…
Robert's visits were almost instantaneous. The experiments with Karla and Liz showed that he did leave the physical world but only the tiniest fraction of time, imperceptible for most people.
Bot it meant that the giant was moving at breakneck speeds in reality unless he wasn’t moving at all.
That's it! Robert let a faint smile creep on his lips. The giant was projecting its image on the liminal void without leaving the physical world. Just like Archhumans did when they accessed the Netherecho. The projection then was free to move at any speeds it wanted. Or could.
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Glancing down, Robert saw a dust cloud hiding the ground. He still had five or four hundred feet to climb down. At this pace, he wouldn't get off the giant before he had to return back to reality.
The creature wasn't interested in killing them, at least for now. It knew they were on its body and didn't attack them with the spears. But it begged the question. If it didn’t want them dead, what designs it had for them? Some outcomes were too horrible to think about.
His anxiety spiked. Robert was an expert at not thinking of unpleasant things. It was his way of avoiding distress, to just run away from his problems. It was fortunate then that it aligned with his goal of getting the fuck away from the mind-bending stone giant.
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He reached a ledge by the giant's hips and waited to return. He could sense that the current visit was almost over. He also didn’t want to think about what this ledge was. Some answers were too disturbing. Robert dropped to a knee to let Amanda climb down.
"It’s still staring at us," he said.
"I can’t see this light you mentioned," she replied.
"Hold tight. We are about to–" Go back to reality.
The ledge shook. Robert glanced up and saw the same eyes but now with colors. The unnerving glare came with another attempt at mental contact. This time it was gentler bit more insidious and harder to defend against.
Nothing forced them onto another rom-com skit. Their attention shifted to a figure floating down from above.
Josie.
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"Greetings, travelers," Josie (not Josie) said with crystal clear pronunciation. No maddening whispers, echoes, or polyphonic chords in the minor scale that can rip a man's soul out.
"Who are you," Amanda asked with a shaky voice.
"I am Cerebelon, God of pink brain stems," Josie replied magnanimously. "And you are worthy."
Both humans fell on their knees. Josie didn't count because it wasn't Josie anymore. Powerful entities, like people with two or more stars and eidola could emit a pressure that caused lesser beings to cower in fright and dread. Josie was doing exactly that, forcing them into submission.
If anyone asked Robert, he would say that making a pact with eldritch deities that defied reason and warped people's flesh wouldn't make into his bucket list, not even in the thousandth position or more.
"What do you want from us," Robert asked.
"I am here to offer you my blessings. Especially to you, Robert Baker. The care you showed when you repaired this body's brain stem has gained my favor."
A stray though passed through his mind. Was the human brain stem pink to begin with? Or was Cerebelon the god of pink, brain, and stems? Did it include plant stems?
"Should we accept your magnanimous offer, what would be our duties, o mighty Cerebelon?" Amanda asked without a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"Spread my faith. Recruit others to our cause. Ready the way for my glorious conquest of your world."
Minion stuff, with shades of fanaticism. Robert thought it would end up so well. Knock on doors and ask people if they had time to hear about their lord and savior, Cerebelon the possessor of the dead, warper of flesh, god of pink brain stems or maybe god of pink, brain, and stems, and all-around chill dude.
"Know this," Josie said with imperious force. The corpses that fell down from the passage all floated up from the dust cloud below. "The penalty for incurring my wrath is death."
Fucked if you did, fucked if you didn't.
"We have no intention of offending you, Cerebelon," Amanda replied.
"If you don't believe yourselves worthy of being my heralds, then I have another offer for you. Stay here and breed me a new generation of worshipers!"
Amanda's face became still like a sculpture.
"What happened with your previous batch of worshipers?" Robert asked. "Someone brought that book to Earth."
"Yes, the splinter of my consciousness I sensed across the veil," Josie's gaze burned Robert's soul. "I see!" The corpse exulted. "You have already taken my gifts into your soul! The pact is forged!"
Visible streams of energy poured from the giant and into Robert. He quickly dove into his Ethercosm and unraveled the healing hands shell. He tossed the remnant of the book out and sighed in relief. Then he screamed. The energy of Cerebelon would not be denied. It forced its way into Robert's soul and seared its presence in the shape of a shining baby pink shell.
A cartoon of a pink brain with the same eight-pupiled eyes hanging from nerve clusters, its spinal cord and nerve bundles hanging beneath the brain, moving about as if swimming in water. The brain's eyes locked with Roberts.
"Wise choice, fleshshaper," Josie's voice entered his mind. "You need not that splinter's power. This is more fitting for you."
The brain filled with power, quickly ascending from remnant to vestige and blossoming into a full-fledged spirit. The shell with the book remnant also returned.
The pressure paralyzed Robert. He felt violated in his most inner layer as the brain spirit forced its way into the cage. A drop of pink sent ripples around his star's surface, dying a good portion of it in Cerebelon's color. His perception expanded as a new affinity joined his collection. The Mental affinity carried a heavy stigma. People with it often imposed their own will on others, forcing them to do horrible things. Cerebelon, for example, did exactly that.
He knew resistance was futile. Cerebelon was an entity capable of opening passages, creating spirits out of thin ether, and controlling people's minds. His best bet was cooperation.
"I will do your bidding but on my terms. Aggressive proselytizing will bring about my early demise. But you will leave the females you took intact. Heal Josie and release her from your control. And take us through another passage to a realm from which we can return to our home."
"The pact is sealed," Josie's voice echoed in his Ethercosm.
Robert reeled in pain as his consciousness returned to his body. He uses his upgraded healing spell to fix the full-body second-degree burn he suffered. The healing speed picked up after the first few patches of burns healed. Josie, now unconscious, floated nearby and fell on his lap. Robert noticed her breathing. Diagnosis showed no problem with her. It was as if the neck wound never existed.
Another person fell next to him. It was one of the explorers that died skewered by dozens of stone spears. But she was not only alive but also with a clean bill of health. Her equipment, however, sported several large holes.
The other bodies, all male, collapsed and bled on the gray-navy rock. Shocked, Robert realized his mistake. He only asked for the females. But how could he know Cerebelon was powerful enough to revive the dead?
Ok, that sounded outlandish even for a self-proclaimed deity. He believed Cerebelon was keeping them alive to use them as pawns. Yes, that was a much more reasonable explanation.
The stone giant was inert. The four survivors gathered on the inert hip ledge.
A passage opened. This one allowed them to see through it. On the other side, a familiar jungle, with snailflies, slug-ants carrying cut leaves, and octopi-wasps buzzing around. All fauna in the Mollusk realm were, well, mollusks.
Compared to this realm of horrors, the Mollusk Realm felt like home.
"Help me carry them," Robert asked Amanda. "Put them over my shoulder in a fireman's carry."
He lifted the two unconscious women and crossed the passage with Amanda.
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Hot air rushed from the Mollusk Realm to fill the rarefied atmosphere of Cerebelon's World. No craters this time. A minute after they crossed, the passage shut down and vanished.
Between Robert and Amanda's detection abilities, they managed to avoid the mollusk patrols. Robert didn't fear the slugs and snails but fighting while protecting two unconscious people was too much. Not to mention he didn't bring his armor nor his weapons.
They camped that night. Robert kept guard while the three women slept. He denied Amanda's request to sleep in the liminal void. Not only it was improper, but he also didn’t want to babysit her sleeping form for eight hours without breaking physical contact. Not to mention it was dangerous. And improper. And very, very dangerous in a way that didn't involve bodily harm.
Amanda woke up. The first thing she saw was Robert offering her a mug of steaming coffee.