Gregory, Cooper, Reginald and Olivander's feast golem assistant trudged through the damp tunnel, the only lights coming from Reginald's lamp and the golem's glowing form.
"What about T-bone? It's ferocious and mysterious," the golem said.
"I don't think it's either of those things," Gregory said.
"I like it! It sounds tasty."
"Cooper, he's trying to come up with a name, not something to eat."
"Can the three of you keep a little quiet? We don't want those things to know we're coming."
"Oh, right! Sorry, Reginald. We can workshop this more later!"
The golem paused for a moment as if it could hear something.
"Olivander is back in the city. He wanted to know our status, so I told him what we did so far. I mentioned those guards we left behind too."
"Thank you. Let's all be quiet now," Reginald said.
Gregory was a little nervous being trapped in the fairly narrow tunnels. He felt bad for Cooper, who had to walk in the water with his paws. The dog didn't seem to mind. Gregory was just glad he had some light boots on.
Cooper guided them on through a few forks, and by this point, Gregory was truly lost. He wouldn't be able to get back out of these passages in a week. Reginald seemed confident and Cooper could probably lead them straight out.
They were moving slowly. Trying to be careful and quiet. Gregory felt some anxiety build as the group progressed ever inward.
When they came to some sort of facility, the tunnel opened up into a reasonably large room. The ceiling was high above them, and various other tunnels led into the space from higher up. The tunnel they had just existed was the lowest one, which made sense as it seemed to be primarily used for drainage.
The facility was basically just some random equipment Gregory couldn't identify, and a large magical pump sitting next to a pool of dark water. The pump he did recognize, they had a similar, albeit much smaller, pump at the ranch to pull water up from deep underground. He assumed this one pumped water out after a storm.
"WAIT!" Cooper said, and they all paused. "I think there are some of those things in here, the mimics."
They all waited, scanning the room. They were still the only sources of light, so the room was very shadowy. Finally, Reginald spotted one and pointed without a word.
It was the same kind of creature that Olivander had captured in the manor. It stood almost motionless. It moved its clawed hands in a complex pattern, sitting back on its haunches. After a long minute, a ball of black energy manifested between the creature's hands.
"There are two more that I can make out behind the pump," Cooper said into their minds. "They're doing the same thing with their hands."
The Ghoul Mimic stopped, and the black orb, almost impossible to see in the low light environment, slowly floated into the air. Two more orbs joined it shortly. Then they combined to form something approximating a portal. The three creatures all moved, jumping and climbing until they could touch the portal, where they disappeared into it.
The portal didn't fade, but it did appear to be slowly closing. Gregory guessed it would stay open for a few minutes at least.
"Is that it?" he whispered.
"I'm not sure," Reginald said. "I've never seen what we're looking for before."
Before they could speculate more, a raspy voice interrupted their conversation.
"Intruders. You trespass on my home."
To their horror, a humanoid figure was crawling out of the portal. It shared features with the mimics — thick greasy hair strands, and no eyes, but this clearly seemed to be a creature of another level of intelligence.
Reginald drew his sword and faced the creature.
"Back out of the chamber, contact Olivander."
"Noooo. No escape. No contact!" A field of magical suppression activated. To Gregory it felt the same as when Olivander had taken away their skills. It seemed to be a more comprehensive effect.
The golem was hit the worst. He was a magical construct after all. He started to deactivate when a very small bubble of energy snapped up around him.
"I can't shield myself from that suppression and fight, but I also will run out of mana very quickly if this keeps up. If I drop this shield I will go inactive immediately. If you can get the suppression to drop I can reach out to Olivander!"
Reginald nodded. "Try to stay safe, Cooper, Gregory. We don't know what else this thing can do."
The creature dropped the rest of the way out of the portal and hit the ground with a wet thud. It didn't seem to mind the impact and slowly drew itself up to a standing position. It had white skin and gray clothing that matched its filthy hair.
"Dammit, I can't activate my time stop ability. Magical effects are being suppressed." His sword flashed orange and he smiled. "It looks like special attacks work just fine."
Reginald didn't give the monster a chance to attack. He may not have activated his time stop ability, but all Gregory could see were flashes of brilliant orange and golden light as Reginald charged his sword for special attack after special attack, mercilessly beating on the newly emerged monster.
The creature fell back, unable to defend itself from the onslaught. Then the world seemed to freeze. Suddenly it was the monster that was a blur, hitting Reginald from every angle. It swiped at him with hands that ended in sharp claws and threw kicks at his frozen form.
When time resumed Reginald was tossed across the room and tumbled to a stop against the far wall.
"Ha…ha…ha. You humans are never so powerful without your powers, are you?" it asked, taunting the man who wasn't getting back up.
It turned towards Gregory and Cooper.
"What of you two? Ahh, what's this?"
It sniffed the air.
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"A man and a dog. You there, dog. You may leave. I have no malice towards your kind."
"I won't leave without my friend!"
"Cooper! Get out of here! We don't stand a chance, but at least both of us don't have to die," Gregory said. He drew his blade and found that he couldn't charge it with magic. He wouldn't be able to heal himself either. Not that it would matter against this creature.
"So brave. You have barely started on your journey, but your potential will make a wonderful addition to my home. Oh yes…"
It slowly stalked towards them.
A flash of golden light marked a sword thrown at the creature's back. The blade impaled its shoulder, burning flesh until the light quickly faded.
Reginald had climbed back onto his feet. He didn't have another weapon, and couldn't summon a new one, but he crouched down in an unarmed fighting stance.
"Tenacious…you will be another fine addition."
Mana coalesced into the creature's palm and Gregory recognized a mana bolt, it shot at Reginald in an instant.
The creature had put more power into the bolt than Gregory ever could, and a fortunate dodge to the side left Reginald with nothing more than a burn on his arm instead of a hole through his chest.
Instead of waiting to get peppered from range, he ran at the creature. Gregory chanced a possibility.
"Reginald!" He shouted, tossing his sword past the creature as high and hard as he could.
The creature didn't have eyes, but it still looked back towards Gregory, not noticing the sword sailing over its head.
Reginald's silver rank reflexes were enough to grab the sword out of the air without maiming himself. The wyrm bone sword began to glow with his golden special attack, and a horizontal swipe cut deep across the creature's chest as it was turning back towards Reginald.
The creature howled with pain and moved more quickly than Gregory had seen without using a stolen ability. It ducked a followup swing and burried a fist in Reginald's gut with a brutal uppercut. The blow lifted Reginald off his feet and launched him into the air. Gregory could see blood spill out of the man's mouth.
What could he do? Reginald was silver rank and could barely fight this creature. Gregory had no real skills beyond some weak magic attack and some healing, neither of which he could use. The only advantage he might have was size.
Taking a tip from Olivander, he charged at the back of the creature without screaming. Taken by surprise, he was able to tackle the creature into the pool of dark water.
Gregory may not have been as strong as the creature, or as fast, or as powerful, but he was much bigger. Momentum wasn't an easy thing to overcome when his target had no leverage. He didn't know if putting it in the water would help, but it was something. He had done something. He locked his body around the creature's back as they sank under the water.
* * *
As Olivander stepped away from the now burning corpse inside the now burning home, his mind screamed as his summoned golem blasted out a message with all of its power.
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HELP!
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He immediately locked onto the source, it was practically right under his feet, but deep underground. With his golem as an anchor, he was able to open a quick portal.
"Make sure that fire doesn't spread, then keep going with rituals!" he said before stepping through.
Olivander emerged into a dark chamber. His inactive golem token on the ground below his feet.
"Olivander! Gregory is under the water with some kind of monster!"
Cooper ran around near the edge of a dark pool of water.
He conjured some lights that spread around the room. He saw a lot of things in a moment.
An open portal to a domain. A bloody and broken Reginald, breathing, but clearly in a bad way. Two discarded weapons, one Reginald's, one Gregory's. A pool of dark water, bubbles coming up from the depths.
Olivander didn't bother with a spell, instead he jumped into the water, pushing conjured lights out ahead of him. He saw one thing he expected and another he didn't. He expected the domain guardian. Reginald could have handled one or two mimics, and his Golem wouldn't have been so thoroughly shut down by regular Ghoul Mimics. What he didn't expect was the man clinging to the creature's back with all his might.
Olivander summoned his grimoire and drew a water manipulation spell. Then all three of them rose out of the water in a rush.
Olivander landed lightly on his feet and Gregory and the creature slammed into the ground, rolling.
The domain guardian was able to break loose from Gregory's grip and it rolled away, leaping back to its feet when it was clear of the threat.
The domain guardian flexed its suppressive power once more, but this time, it paused, cocking its head in confusion.
"You don't have the power to suppress me, monster," Olivander said.
"Another human, come to feed my people…yes, come,"
It launched itself forward, but Olivander didn't feel too threatened.
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Ghoul Mimic - Guardian, Level 130
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It crashed through his volcano ward and its flesh began to bubble and burn, but that didn't stop it. When it was close enough, it began swiping at him. Every blow met a conjured miniature shield.
"Tell me, monster. How is it that you have created a new domain? I'm quite curious about how they are established."
"I will tear you apart, human!"
Olivander usually would have engaged in some banter at this point, maybe just insulted the creature for a while. But he was really tired. Tired of fighting, tired of seeing people almost dead. He made up his mind, deciding the creature wasn't going to serve any purpose to him.
He was beginning to feel angry. This pathetic creature had almost killed his friends. When Olivander looked at it again, he didn't see red. He saw black.
He stepped back through a portal that shut before the creature could follow.
The creature turned as it heard Olivander's voice chant out a spell.
A dark diagram hovered over Olivander. It radiated doom and destruction; a feeling compounded by the words he spoke.
"When the gates of the abyss open, the only thing that will pass through them is annihilation. Pass beyond this mortal Realm and enter the abyss of absolute emptiness. Abyssal Doorway!"
A rough stone arch appeared behind the creature, filled with black. An unseen force pulled the creature inside. Olivander could see it struggle to escape for a moment before simply dissolving into nothingness. The doorway crumbled in on itself.
The room was silent for a long moment, until Gregory started to move, breaking the stillness.
"Uhh, Olivander?" Gregory asked, slowly climbing to his feet. "What the hell was that?"
"The creature, or the spell?"
"Both honestly. I'm not sure which is going to give me worse nightmares."
Olivander scolded himself inside for a moment before sighing.
"The spell is one I really shouldn't use. If you can't escape the pull of the doorway, you die. I grew a nasty habit when I was younger of using it in anger, while at war. Seeing that creature come so close to killing all of you just pushed me over the edge I think. I regret it now. I…" he trailed off, unsure what to say. He didn't know what he was feeling. His mind was nearly broken. He really needed to rest before he did something even more stupid than opening a doorway into the Abyssal Realm.
"It's alright," Gregory said, putting a wet arm around Olivander's shoulder. "I get it. I might have done the same thing. It's not like you killed some innocent person with that spell. You were going to kill that thing one way or another. I can't imagine being dissolved into nothingness, or whatever that was, is worse than being burned alive by another spell."
"You know Gregory, I give you a hard time, but that does really make me feel better. Thank you."
Gregory smiled and patted him on the back. "No backhanded compliment or clever insult? Wow, you must have really been worried."
"Gregory, if you were half as good at understanding anything as you are at comforting people, maybe everyone wouldn't call you an idiot. At least not quite so often."
"And he's back."
"Good! If he stopped insulting you he might come after me next."
"What? I would never!"
They laughed for a minute, then Olivander put a hand on both of his companions, and they shared a moment of comradery.
Then Reginald coughed more blood into a growing pool around his head.
"Gregory! How could you let me forget about Reginald? The poor man is practically on death's door and you're over here trying to have a sentimental moment."