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Chapter 33

Daniel sent the last mimic into Limbo with a satisfied grin on his face. This was it, his very own sanctuary. It wasn’t perfect mind you, he still needed to store some basic supplies in the mobile structure that the mimics were busy melding into, but it was a fantastic step forward. He hadn’t been able to test it up to this point, but Dreamer’s Durability, the card that upgraded the rarity of all physical cards needed the fortress to operate and he was keen to find out just what his two other physique cards would turn into.

Though he’d need to wait for the mimics to finish assembling themselves before he could do that. It wasn’t just a matter of putting themselves into the right spots, they needed to attune to one another so that their movements would be fluid and natural, and that would take about half an hour if reports from the card’s previous owner were reliable.

“That should about do it,” Daniel said, satisfaction plain on his expression.

Both Yaseb and Jonathan had stayed throughout the process, with Yaseb watching Daniel carefully throughout the entire ordeal while Johanthan read a book not too far away, only occasionally glancing up to make sure all was well.

With a thump Jonathan closed his book and made his way over, sending occasional glances to the staff working throughout the facility.

“Have you finished,” Jonathan asked.

“Just about,” Daniel replied, sensing vague impressions of how long it would take the mimics to finish.

Jonathan nodded, “Then we should leave before–”

“Jonathan, my friend,” a cheerful voice called from across the facility.

Daniel glanced to where he’d heard the voice call from and was somewhat surprised by what he saw. A tall man was walking over covered head to toe in foliage. Vibrant green plants hung tightly to his body, almost appearing to be form fitting against his body as he walked over wearing brightly colored loose-fitting jacket. When he got closer Daniel could see that it was made from thousands of different flowers with interlocking roots keeping it held together.

The man himself had a thick beard, heavily tanned skin and an energetic presence to him.

“Jonathan, Yaseb, did you really think you could come to my facility and leave without having a drink with me?” The man asked, laughing.

“Ah, and you,” the man said, gesturing towards Daniel. “You must be the new legendary user that I’ve heard so much about. I trust my facility served you well?”

“It worked well enough,” Daniel replied, glancing towards Jonathan who looked extremely uncomfortable.

“Sorry, but we were just leaving, Vadim. We’ll have to refuse your hospitality this time.”

“Oh don’t be like that, Jonathan,” Vadim said, leaning towards Daniel. “This one’s always been shy. Never wants to do anything if you don't make him.”

Jonathan started to retort, but was cut off when a blaring alarm cut whatever he was going to say short. It was an ear-piercing sort of alarm, meant to be easily heard over the louder automatic devices in the facility.

Jonathan, Yaseb and Vadim all grew still at the sound, before abruptly moving to action.

“Shut off the machines,” Vadim yelled to the workers gathered in the large room, who moved to follow the order before he’d even given it with practiced ease. They’d clearly drilled for exactly this situation.

“We were supposed to have another week,” Yaseb sheepishly said, wide eyes darting all around him.

Jonathan just grimaced and quickly gestured for Daniel to follow him.

“What’s going on,” Daniel asked, not moving from his spot.

“The Blood Moon, it’s here,” Yaseb shakily said. “And we’re not in the city.”

Yaseb got up and rushed down the hall, leaving Jonathan and Daniel behind in his mad dash to the portal.

Daniel however, had a choice to make. To stay in his newly built bunker, and then walk it to the city once the mimics were done attuning or ditch it for the moment and take the portal back to the city, letting the mimics walk their way over later in the relative safety of Limbo.

It was a tougher choice than it looked at a glance. The mimic fortress was more of a panic bunker than a complete solution to all his problems. It was why he needed Dreamer’s Durability in the first place. Monsters could still get him in Limbo, or follow him in somehow, and a fresh Blood Moon was said to be when the most dangerous monsters that'd been infected by it were most active.

‘I’d be more confident in staying if I had some actual practice using the upgraded cards that I’ll have in my fortress,’ Daniel bitterly thought.

As things stood he’d be mostly relying on the innate feature of Flicker Between Worlds to keep him safe, and he could do that back in the city just as easily.

“Yeah, we need to make our way to the portal,” Daniel hesitantly said. He wasn’t as confident in the decision as he wished he was. The plan had been to have the mimic fortress inside the city and the current predicament was forcing him to reevaluate his priorities.

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“Follow close behind me,” Jonathan said, eyes rapidly scanning his surroundings and paying careful attention to the people still shutting down the facility.

“I don’t think that anything too bad died in this area last Blood Moon, but sometimes places like this downplay the seriousness of the things getting resurrected in the area. We need to be careful. They’ll prioritize fighting each other, but they won’t hesitate to come after us if we get in their way.”

Jonathan began hastily moving down the hallway, and Daniel noticed the priestly man pull out a small religious symbol and run it nervously between his fingers. Daniel didn’t recognize it, and he wouldn’t have even noticed it if he hadn’t been boosting his reaction speed with Foundation of One. The card seemed to recognize the desire to react faster and increased the processing speed of his brain as a result. That was the going theory that Daniel had anyways. Either way it allowed him to notice small details like this.

‘Can’t blame the man for being nervous,’ Daniel calmly reasoned. ‘Even if something happening to us before we reach the portal is rather unlikely.’

Daniel watched as workers shut down the kill chambers for the Drita. It was an extremely important step to take during a Blood Moon. Anything that died during one would be resurrected during the next. If they abandoned the facility with everything still running they’d have a disaster during the next Blood Moon.

The two men jogged down the halls back to the portal, spotting workers making their way towards it themselves. That seemed to disquiet Jonathan, and Daniel was pretty sure he knew why. You couldn’t trust anyone to much in this kind of situation. Who knew what monsters had just been revived, and if they’d already infiltrated disguised as one of them or something along that vein.

The only saving grace in their favor was the recency of the Blood Moon. They should all be themselves at this point. An hour or so passing would quickly change that fact.

The portal wasn’t far away, and Daniel and Jonathan arrived at it shortly, watching as nervous workers made their way through. Many of them had pale expressions, and paranoid eyes. They understood the danger they were in.

Daniel would have hesitated at the portal if he hadn’t had the time to think it through while running down the hall. The gods or whoever they were had already said their piece, and if they wanted to say more it wouldn’t be the end of the world. They hadn’t hurt him, they just would’ve if he hadn’t had A Sane Man’s Burden.

“Watch over me if you can,” Daniel mumbled a prayer under his breath to nobody in particular. “Just make sure it's from a safe distance please.”

With that said Daniel threw himself through the portal and near instantly found himself back in the tunnel beneath the cathedral inside the wall of the city. Several members of the church hastily ushered the workers to move down the hall, likely to some kind of area to inspect them.

The church members looked strong as far as card users went. Daniel could spot several cards of iron, bronze and scarce instances of silver tattooed to their arms.

His racing heart calmed as a church member motioned for him to move down the hallway. Daniel only moved to oblige moments later after he'd confirmed that Jonathan had stepped through the portal.

Moving to follow the orders, Daniel turned his attention towards one of the church members as the sound of thunder cracked overhead.

“Did you see Yaseb come through the portal?” Daniel asked one of the men ushering them forth.

A curt nod was the only response he received before being forced to move down the thin hall, the slew of workers coming through the portal behind him pushing him forward.

Eventually they came to a larger room with a priest wearing flowing ceremonial robes audibly counting the people gathered in the room.

“...nineteen, twenty. That will do.”

The priest waved his hand, and Daniel caught the sleeve of the priest slip down slightly, revealing a silver card depicting a man surrounded by a near uncountable number of tiny creatures made from smoke, and the man depicted on the card was walking through them as if they weren't there. The immediate space around him was devoid of the creatures, encompassing maybe ten feet around the man, and where he passed the creatures burned away, unable to be in his presence.

“Cleansed of the Unseen,” the priest said, as Daniel felt an invisible aura wash over him. One of the men ahead of him dropped down to the ground, convulsing, and was quickly and roughly dragged away by several guards.

“Not good,” Jonathan muttered, watching the convulsing man struggle against the guards. “That means something already made its way into the facility. They may shut the portal before all the workers manage to get through.”

Daniel wasn’t listening to Jonathan, he was busy scanning the crowd of men as a frown slowly formed on his face.

“Jonathan, are the cards that the gods give each of you unique?” Daniel asked, eyes still scanning the crowd.

Jonathan nodded, “They’re unique like all cards are, though they’ll still follow the conventions of the god that gives them. They’re not worth it though, and now isn’t the time to think about getting one. We have bigger concerns,” Jonathan whispered to Daniel, eyes tracking the convulsing man they were still dragging away. It seemed they were having trouble. The man’s body was writhing, with the exposed flesh that Daniel could see bubbling and twisting unnaturally. The guards were struggling to remove him from the room simply by the nature of what was happening to him.

Daniel pushed his way through the group, quickly arriving before the priest in ceremonial robes. The priest was a young man with short black, unkempt hair with tired eyes and an even more tired posture as he continued to count the workers that entered the room, which were quickly moved into their own groups.

“Hey, you,” Daniel said to the priest.

The priest didn’t turn away from the workers entering the room as he yawned and responded to Daniel, “What is it, I’m busy.”

“Did you see Yaseb come through here? Did he already head up to the cathedral?” Daniel quickly asked.

“No, I haven't seen Yaseb,” the priest answered as he continued to count workers, painfully unaware of what Yaseb’s disappearance implied.

Daniel’s eyes widened at the answer, face scrunching up into a look of dread as he hastily walked back over to Jonathan, cursing under his breath all the while.

“We need to leave now,” Daniel said, gripping Jonathan’s arm and pulling his attention away from the previously convulsing, now eerily still man.

“What,” Jonathan asked, clearly annoyed at the distraction.

“Something in this building was going to kill Yaseb,” Daniel said, paranoid eyes moving throughout the room. “His card activated. The one his god gave him. He didn’t even make it all the way to this room.”

Jonathan’s eyes widened in realization as he scanned the room. And all the while up above on the surface, thunder shook the sky.