Chapter 292
Nora was losing control, and Narg was getting worried.
The beholder demon narrowed its many eyes at the human as she clutched her chest and made gasping noises, hitting the ground and jerking in odd ways that weren’t what he would consider ‘normal’. She’d been getting worse as time had went on, with traces of black and silver showing up on portions of her body to change it into something other than flesh, but Narg wasn’t sure exactly what it was before it reverted back into normal muscle, skin and bone.
Even her eyes had changed color from their normal brown to a sickly white, and she was mumbling incoherent sentences to herself and sometimes aloud for all to hear until they’d ended up here. Here at the dead end of a hallway, where Narg had a clean shot at anything that may or may not attempt to kill them.
“Nora… Can you hear me, child?” The demon asked, keeping two of its eyes swiveled on stalks to stare behind it - always on guard. “The others are counting on us to finish this, Nora. Take another one of your healing potions and it may help-”
His words were cut off as another roar from the giant chained to the lava pit in the center of the cylindrical labyrinth caused the ground to violently shake. It was deafening, giving Narg a killer headache as frustration began building up inside him. Down the hall, the glow of the lava illuminated the dark stone - and the sound of battle could be heard where other beasts and participants brutally killed one another.
Scowling and thinking to himself, Narg went over his options. He could leave her here to die and if he understood things correctly, her dying here would only banish her into Chalgathi’s event and she’d lose out on all the time and effort put into doing this. Part of Narg thought this the obvious and best choice, as he couldn’t be slowed down to fail the Reincarnation of Gluttony like this. He would rather die than be such a burden and bear such shame to his family’s lineage. To fail Gluttony and his bonded partner Riven would be worse than death, and sweat began to accumulate on Narg’s green skin just by thinking about it.
“No… No I can’t leave her. The great maw would not have allowed her to come if he wanted or expected her to fail now. It is my duty to see her through this, as she is a friend of the reincarnation.” He let out a deep, shaky breath. “So just how do I do that if she’s comatose?”
Narg sent out more pulses of Seek Danger, Seek Object, and Seek Safety. Pathways congregated in his mind as manifested as streaks of pulsing light that pulsed for a few seconds before dying away, leaving invisible trails only he could see afterwards. Seek Safety flared its light right where he’d positioned them so that he could collect his thoughts, reaffirming it was still a good hiding place to think over his predicament. Seek Object, which he’d focused generally on ‘An Exit’, traced itself down in multiple directions showing multiple paths he could use in order to leave - all of which ended at the same spot far down on the very bottom floor of the maze somewhere. Meanwhile, Seek Danger flared brightly in the direction of the chained giant and interior of the cylindrical maze, as well as immediately to the right at the next bend where fighting could be heard. Surprisingly enough, Seek Danger ALSO flared a more vibrant light to the left as well… and as Narg watched its pulse - that light began to creep closer by the second at a monotonous pace.
Whatever or whoever it was had completely concealed their presence from him. He was unable to detect a sound, and he couldn’t sense a power signature at all. No mana, divinity, or stamina was detectable even in the barest of hints… and Narg was beginning to get nervous after it got within twenty feet of his position just around the left bend.
Silently flying up to a dark corner of the dead end hallway he had helped Nora to, he saw the hues of Seek Safety began to flicker out and die around him - as the presence finally made it to the edge of the wall.
But he saw nothing.
Hoping he was sufficiently hidden here in the dark, which only had about a 20% chance of success by his guess due to being in an abyssal plane where most creatures could see in dark places - he waited. If it was another maze-crawler and not a spawned creature, he’d still have a chance - and Narg had little choice in the matter as he wasn’t about to leave Nora behind.
Seconds passed, and still nothing. His Seek Danger and Seek Safety castings began to fade, and the last of it died away with the previous impression showing that whatever or whoever it was had stopped dead in its tracks directly in front of him. Narg was a beholder demon and his many eyes could pick up on most stealthed opponents, and he even had a trait called ‘Scoped Vision’ that would make out extremely minute details even at a distance - but he could sense nothing.
Should he just blast the area anyways?
He was considering this just when a person stepped out of stealth, and began walking slowly to where Nora was still gasping, choking, and convulsing on the ground.
It was a skresh wearing assassin garbs. The skeletal humanoid had an extra arm on its left side as well, making the cloak the skresh wore appear bulkier and lopsided. The two left hands each held daggers, while the right hand shifted in and out of reality with an odd combination of pillars that Narg couldn’t pinpoint. Two feet into the hallway, the skresh stopped, then turned its dead gaze upwards to look at the exact spot Narg now pressed himself into.
And if the skeleton could smile, Narg had no doubt this skresh would be doing so right now.
“Nice hiding place.” The skresh let out in a masculine rasp, chuckling to himself as his daggers repeatedly spun absentmindedly. “But I suppose I shouldn’t mock you too much… there aren’t any better ones. Not here. Regardless… it appears your companion is out for the count. And given what you are… I’m assuming you're a mage.”
The skresh cocked its head to the side, raising its left hand that continued to phase in and out as a wall of mana crashed down in front of Nora as Narg manifested a nightmare barrier. The undead was obviously unphased by Narg’s display, and didn’t bother taking a step back.
“I am.” Narg replied, floating down from the top corner. Channeling unholy and infernal energies into different tentacles leading up to his various eyes, he kept both piercing globspitters and explosive hellspitters locked in on his target. “But let us cut to the chase. What is it that you want? If it is our deaths to claim our keys, our group in the sacrificial chamber has not yet made them.”
The skresh scoffed, and the twirling of his daggers stopped. His dead gaze seemed to leer at Narg as if to wordlessly call him a liar and an idiot. “That’s exactly what someone with keys would say. Now isn’t it?”
Silence ensued for nearly two minutes as they stared at one another.
“But I am a kind skresh, and am willing to let you go with your life.” The skeletal man said with a low bow - eye sockets of his skull never leaving Narg. “Under one condition.”
Narg furrowed his brows, and floated closer to the convulsing woman on the floor in preparation for a potential attack. He could feel the aura of death starting to pour out of the undead, and the underlying suspicion of this skeletal man’s power after failing to detect him earlier was all but confirmed. This was not a fight Narg would win, but he was not willing to fail Gluttony’s call either. No matter what, he must prevail. “And what would that condition be, stranger?”
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The skresh assassin clattered his teeth together and raised slightly. “Let me kill the human girl. They are a weak species anyways, and you can obviously do without her. You will lose your keys, but your team will be left with one to complete the maze after they remake the keys a second time. It is a good offer, considering the alternative is both of your heads… Or, in your case, your eyeballs.”
It wasn’t a funny joke, but the skresh certainly thought it to be as he cackled outwardly and brandished his daggers as his aura soared. Deathly energies crashed into the nightmare barrier of flame and shadow with just a passive flex of the undead’s soul, and Narg inwardly cursed as he decided on what to do.
He didn’t have much of a choice.
“Fine.” Narg said with a frown. “She’s deadweight to me anyways. You can have her, just leave me be.”
Somewhat surprised, but pleased, the skresh stepped back and lowered his blades along with his shimmering right hand. “Very good… Very good. I am happy that we-”
Narg lit the undead up, unleashing all of his unholy and infernal attacks that eradicated the hallway in front of him with subsequent blasts. The skresh evaporated into thin air with an echo of a snarl, but he’d been ready for treachery and dodged all of it without much fanfare.
However, it did leave the hallway open to run for it. Or in Narg’s case, fly.
Without a word, Narg picked up Nora’s twitching body in his mouth. Encompassing them in a sphere of molded nightmare barrier, he pointed all of his accessory eyeballs behind him and charged over a dozen hellspitters. With another resounding boom, he unleashed the fiery spells in an explosion that sent him blasting forward like a rocket - past the assassin that attempted to slash down at the passing duo - and out towards the inner cylinder of the labyrinth.
Directly towards the chained giant.
Narg’s mind raced as he ducked and weaved under the unnaturally fast assassin, who was managing to keep up with Narg even despite the propulsive explosions the beholder demon set off one after another for quick trajectory changes. Most of the attacks were deflected by the barrier, but once in a while the shimmering hand would pierce through the veil and attempt to grab at Nora - the easier target - before Narg quickly dodged to avoid the swiping hand as he raced through the winding tunnels.
Abyssal hounds roared as he passed them by and the thundering boom of a giant fist caused the maze to shake again as tortured wails from the chained giant grew louder. But Narg didn’t dare stop, he was on an alternate path now. The path he’d set out for them should something like this happen, a situation where he knew they wouldn’t be able to win and had to make a gambling chance.
He was headed for the drop off, and would attempt to dive down through the open air to the lower levels and expose himself to the giant that he’d seen swat down so many other fliers in their attempts prior to this.
“Come back here you WRETCH! GIVE ME YOUR KEYS!" The skresh screached out at him, blurring passed in a swath of death and shadow before extending a hand and sending numerous bone javelins out of his warping limb over the course of three seconds.
Narg activated ‘Seek Safety’ in a split second before the original struck and followed the path it laid out, managing to successfully dodge all of the blurring projectiles by tracing his skill’s outline.
The skresh gawked.
But Narg didn’t bother waiting to see the undead’s reaction as a globspitter’s piercing green bolt was sent blasting through an erected bone shield the skresh had summoned, sliding the assassin backwards by a few feet and cursing loudly.
Narg flashed by.
The beholder demon weaved up, down, left and right as the large hallway widened out and zigzagged until the molten glow of the enormous lake of lava began to be more prevalent. Cracks in the labyrinth’s floors showed he was in an overpass of some sort with the lake far below, and not long after that he came to the beginning of an opening where a ledge overlooking the magma was in full view.
He’d almost done it.
Using one of his eyes to look back and saw the assassin racing to catch up, with another dozen of the black labyrinth hounds rushing behind the skresh as they too took to the chase.
On the other side was possible salvation in the form of an enraged, charred giant - with its eyes burned out, and a giant chain coming out of the magma pool far below to attach at a metal collar around the giant’s neck.
All around the cylindrical, cavernous room were other ledges, outcroppings, and exposed pathways where only occasional flickers of movement could be seen in brief. A dashing monster here, a sneaking participant there, only for the monstrous giant’s blackened, sizzling hand to crush one after the other in quick succession - managing to kill perhaps a third of the creatures that dared expose themselves to the titan. Despite the ears and eyes having been burned out, it had uncanny accuracy and had the strength of ten thousand of anything roaming these abyssal halls.
Narg was just hoping that it would be too distracted to try and go for him.
With the assassin’s shadowy form closing in, Narg used a final burst of flame and blasted into either side of the hallway’s end with two different eyes. The residual explosions sent him out like a cannonball, and soon he was airborne.
Far, far out into the middle of the room, Narg soared - barely managing to outpace a spiraling dagger infused with death essence so potent that the air around it warped.
Taking a sharp turn and diving low underneath a quick swing from the massive giant, Narg’s heart almost stopped as the fried limb of the titan broke the sound barrier and whooshed overhead. The residual BOOM that sounded out when the giant missed him and impacted the far wall made Narg almost bite down on the woman in his mouth, but he managed to get ahold of himself and began a direct downward spiral - looping around the giant’s waist towards the molten lake.
Meanwhile, Nora was dealing with her own problems. Narg just couldn’t see it.
***
The familiar, ancient presence of numerous entities she’d grown up with since being a small child pressed against her mind like a flood about to break. But they were anything but welcome.
Smiling, crazed figures of shadow and claw smiled endlessly out at her. A legion of grins, devoid of anything but malice. Entities of true evil, not ‘Unholy’, but actual evil - were sitting inside her soul, waiting to be let out.
She could feel their claws digging through the barriers she’d erected to keep them out of her dreams, but now, in this place, they seemed to have grown stronger. And they’d been stronger ever since meeting Riven again, and having been in the presence of Gluttony. They wanted to be near him, and they wanted to be free of the mental prison she’d trapped them in.
“We are friends… Friends!!! Let us out! Let us out!” They cooed simultaneously, speaking together without ever breaking that sick, crazed smile they had. The silver-white eyes were the only outstanding colors in a sea of black, and they almost seemed two-dimensional due to just how black they were. She could not make out any real dimensions beyond their outlines as they tried to swarm and press against each other for the forefront of her attention. “FRIENDS! FRIENDS! FRIENDS! WE ARE FRIENDS! WE ARE FRIENDS! LET US OUT! LET US OUT!”
Nora internally cringed away from the smiling faces, beginning to cry as she screamed over the building crescendo of the insistent begging. “Please just go away… Please… You're all scaring me...”
“NORA, NORA, LET US OUT! NORA, NORA, LET US OUT!”
CRASH
Pain.
Intense pain brought her back to the real world, as she felt her bones shatter in dozens of places all at once. She wanted to scream, but the air was torn from her lungs - and the world spun as she was smashed into a giant pool of lava with a splash. She opened her eyes wide in shock, seeing Narg only a few dozen yards away getting snatched out of the lava where he’d landed away from her. A huge hand gripped the broken, bloodied beholder demon as he was picked up by the charred and chained giant - and a look of fear overcame Narg as the beholder was brought up to the giant’s gaping mouth.
A squeal of horrified pain, and then a bloody CRUNCH resounded in the labyrinth as the giant began to chew on the demon before swallowing.
It looked down at Nora next, the enormous, blind creature somehow sensing she was there - sinking into the magma, at a slow pace while burning alive. She croaked out, too weak to move, and watched as the giant’s bloody mouth widened before it brought down its other hand to reach for her next.
“FRIENDS! FRIENDS! WE ARE FRIENDS!” The voices echoed in her mind, and without anything left in the tank to hold them back - her curtain of willpower fell.
And the creatures that’d been held back for so long began to reclaim her. Memories of murders. Memories of being locked in an insane asylum, and then a women’s prison, and then a maximum security lab where she’d been experimented on by her government all came flooding back to her. Memories that she’d suppressed, as that sickly smile the monsters inside her wore began to spread along her own face. Her skin began to loose focus, turning a vantablack, and her eyes began to glow a soft silvery light.
But the pain... The pain had vanished entirely.
“Friends, friends… we are all friends!” Nora whispered to herself with a giggle, her mind snapping as reality lost focus - and she lost her sense of self.
She was no longer Nora.
It was THEY who were Nora.
They were all Nora. They always had been. They always would be.
And they would never be apart from her again.
They… were one.
[Bloodline: The Insane Asylum, has been activated. The Insanity Stat has been unlocked. Your soul has rearranged itself with the help of your 'Others'. Your soul lattice has taken a massive step forward, and is almost complete. Congratulations, you are nearly at the E-grade.]