The air in the safe room sweltered as fire devoured the dungeon fruit trees. Zee’s smile grew, childlike, taunting, but the voice from his lips sounded as ancient as a rusty hinge.
“Do you know the problem with adventurers? They look at paths and choose between them, but cannot see the world those paths carve and divide. Space and time. Destination destiny. Infinite unpinned points, but all you adventurers want is a route between where you are and where you think you want to be.”
Zee shook his head as electricity curled through the smoke above him.
“You think it’s the container?” He chuckled, and the walls of the cave trembled as they joined him in laughter. “Cold and calculating people think that. Is that who you are? Nevermind. The answer is neither. A dungeon is not the container, or the contained, it is the space. Without a hollow interior, a dungeon is just a stack of bricks or rock. Without a hole for a door, no prisoner can enter. Without windows cut into the walls, they cannot have hope for a life beyond their imprisonment. Without hope, the dungeon is nothing, but the dungeon is not hope.”
He stared at Zoe, and his gaze crept across her soul like a centipede. She thought of the choices and the consequences forced upon her ever since she entered the dungeon. Anton and Bella shifted beside her as Zee studied each of them.
“The dungeon is a wicked space,” Zee said. “And when someone blasts holes into the sides of the dungeon, the space leaks beyond its natural thresholds. The dungeon reaches out and snatches up nice things and takes them for —”
Zoe leaped forward. Her Mirrored fist crashed into Zee’s face and drove him down to the ground. He grunted and coughed blood. His grey nose crunched flat against his gray face. Her mirrored fist blasted out the reflection of her strike. Zee’s head shattered. Gore sprayed across the cave floor, and Zoe stood heaving above the headless corpse. She unclenched her fist, knuckles creaking as she flexed them out.
There was a lot of rage and frustration behind that blow. Coupled with her high Might, the grey flesh and blood didn’t stand a chance.
Cool energy flowed up her wrist as Bella and Anton advanced into the room. Anton’s eyes floated around the treasure chest, while others examined the spattered brains and skull fragments floating in puddles of blood.
“That was easy,” Bella said. “But do you mind saving some experience for the rest of us?”
Anton shook his head.
“There’s still something here,” he pointed up. “There’s still lightning in the smoke. I’m detecting something malicious, but there’s too much interference.”
“We’ll be careful,” Zoe said. “But I want to see what’s inside this box.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Bella said. “How can we trust this?”
Zoe nodded and pulled back her hand from the latch. The padlock hung there heavy and locked.
“There must be a key.”
She knelt and patted down Zee’s robed body. Her fingers felt the wiry flesh beneath the thin and coarse fabric and she told herself he wasn’t real. She found an iron key in his pocket.
Static electricity burred the key, and she gripped it tight with her mirrored fingers.
“I’m going to try the lock. I should be fine with [Self Reflects the World], but you two get back. Last time we touched the water it summoned the mirrordiles, so go back to the tunnel.”
Anton placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Just because you open the chest, doesn’t mean you get to keep everything inside.”
She shook her head.
“It’s not like that.”
“Good.”
Bella and Anton retreated to the tunnel mouth and hid behind irregularities in the rock. The fires in the trees were still bright, but the leaves and thin branches were long gone, now the trunks stood as upright pillars of flame. They burned hot and true and without her raised Vitality, low though it was, Zoe was sure she would have collapsed. Thick black smoke obscured the ceiling. The dark, rippling cloud lit up by bright blue arcs of electricity. Zoe kept an eye on it, but so far it seemed nothing would come. She had defeated Zee before he could use his technique.
The heavy iron key fit into the heavy iron lock. Rust flaked from the hole as she turned the key and unlocked the shackle. She held her breath as she lifted the lid to the treasure chest. A sense of awe came over her as she lifted the lid. Golden light spilled out from within.
[You have triggered a trap!]
The chest’s lid slammed down. Zoe barely got her fingers out of the way in time. Something told her that her technique wouldn’t have saved her from having them chopped off. She examined the key and lock in her hand, puzzled at what the trap would be when a wind blew through the room.
Zoe lifted her head as the stiff wind blew at her mirrored hair. The smoke above her cleared, and her eyes widened. A dozen Zees crawled on the ceiling. Grey fingers and feet gripped the stalactites. Blue electricity arced along their wiry bodies.
Two dozen yellow eyes met hers, and a dozen mouths twisted into grins.
“Oh,” Zoe said.
The Zee’s dropped. Four landed atop her and bounced away from her Mirrored skin. They hit the ground, spun in the dirt like kicked dogs, and bounded toward her on all fours. Blue lightning sparked and leaked from their gaping maws. She kicked one, and it flew away, but six more leaped for her.
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The others ran toward Bella and Anton.
Zoe tried to turn, to run to protect her allies, but Zees surrounded her. They crawled on the ground, loping like hairless apes. Blue light flared and a Zee spat lightning. The bolt slammed into Zoe’s guard. She planned to bounce it away, but the lightning thrashed into her arm and traveled through her body. Her muscles cramped, teeth ground, as pain coursed through her mind. She fell to one knee, and the Zees leaped.
Her Mirrored armor flung them away, but it was draining her Skein.
Status
Name: Zoe Chambers
Level: 26
Body: The Bell At The Center Of The World (Rank 2, Progress 6/10)
ATTRIBUTES
Might: 73 (+11)
Vitality: 20
Dexterity: 24 (+11)
Willpower: 72 (+11)
Insight: 32 (+11)
Skein: 121/221
Titles: Intrepid, Lodestone, Fools Rush In (Incomplete), Quest Breaker, Glutton, True Believer, Magnifying Glass
Techniques: Our Hearts Toll As One, The Self Reflects The World
She could still feel the power of her new body. There was a large amount of these Zees, but she was level 26. She should be able to defeat them. A Zee leaped on her back. It bounced away, snarling.
She advanced and kicked out, but the two in front of her scrambled back. Her chain lashed out from around her neck, but the ghostly metal only attracted electricity, and she quickly withdrew it back.
Another Zee leaped at her, and she stepped into the Grasping Vine, dodged, and elbowed the creature as it passed. The double tap of her Mirrored blow snapped its neck.
Eleven to go.
[Skein 101/221]
A silvery orb flashed in front of her face. Distracted, she failed to dodge a lightning blast and stumbled as the shock seized her muscles. The silvery orb zipped back toward the tunnel mouth. Zoe turned.
The Zees had her allies cornered. Bella swung her sword, back against the cave wall, but the nimble Zees dodged her heated slashing. She fended off three of them, but a fourth crawled its way up the ceiling with a grin leaking blue light.
Anton lay pinned beneath a Zee. It had its fingers in his mouth, gagging him, preventing him from crying out for help.
Zoe leaped toward them, but lightning slammed into her back. Blast after blast. She lost control of herself and slammed into the ground beside her allies. Mere feet away from them, she twitched and pushed at the ground with numb fists, as Zees piled on top of Bella and Anton.
Bella screamed as a Zee slipped past her guard and clawed out her eye. Blood spat from the wound. In her moment of pain, the Zee from the ceiling dropped.
Another Zee kicked Zoe over and straddled her chest. Its fists hammered her Mirrored face and bounced away with equal force.
[Skein 85/221]
[Skein 70/221]
She had to get up, but blue electricity still crawled along her limbs, stunning her. Bella slumped to the ground, invisible beneath the scrawny grey bodies. Anton lay behind her. The cold, brutal reality of the difference in their levels hit home.
Zoe reached out to Bella with her chain as lightning coursed through her body.
“No…”
The dungeon squealed like a cat in a blender. Blood poured from Zoe’s ears, but the sound filled her soul. A tearing, harsh, pressurized wail. The dungeon cried out with the agony of being reborn. Deep within Zoe’s essence, the Mirrorbell fragments screeched with an echo of their dungeon’s pain.
The Zees fell to the ground. They twisted. Kicked. Squirmed in the agony of their world. Blue lightning flailed and struck out at random. The burning trees stuttered, the flames leaping, shrinking, and shifting wildly from orange to red to green to black.
In the glow of somber, colorless fire, a silence crept after the painful shriek. No sound of lapping water, of crackling wood, of breathing, of bleeding. The silence of a Sound drained church.
Zoe pushed herself to her feet. The Zees still lay on the ground. Her allies slumped against the cave wall. Bleeding, dying… but still alive.
She screamed and stomped down on the neck of the nearest Zee. Her foot slushed flesh and severed bone. Dust flew up from the impact of her Mirrored foot against the cave floor.
She dismissed [Self Reflects the World] and conjured her Metal body. She ached, but she wouldn’t waste her Skein on incapacitated enemies. With brutal, efficient movements, she moved between the Zees and shattered their skulls with well-placed fists.
Blood swelled across the cave floor and her fist grew numb with the cold death energy. She didn’t stop until they were all dead. A dripping glove of gore stretched up past her elbow. She didn’t care, and she crouched beside Bella.
The blonde woman looked up at her weakly. Blood dribbled from her mouth. Her eye was a ragged hole where fingers had plunged inside. Her left leg was still, but her right trembled. She gritted her teeth in a smile.
“You should have… saved some for me.”
Zoe gripped her hand.
“You’ll get the next lot,” she said. “I want to take a break, anyway. Are you…?”
Bella appeared battered, bruised, and bleeding, but even now Zoe detected the movement of the runeblade’s Skein within her. Barbed stitches closed the wound in her eye. Ribs cracked, and Bella’s chest undented.
“I’m fine, just wish I was…” she tapped below her eye as a groan stole her words.
Zoe shook her head.
“I’ve regrown an eye. You’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine.”
The Australian swore and squeezed hard on Zoe’s hand as the runeblade repaired her body. Zoe pulled the Metal away from her skin and held Bella. Human skin to human skin, no matter the energies that swirled beneath.
Behind her, Anton coughed and spluttered. He rolled over, puked up a fingernail and a puddle of bile, and sat up.
“That was terrible,” he wiped at the blood leaking from his ears. “My hearing seems fine. What’s this blood from then? The idea of my hearing? Blood from the mind as a sound beyond sound penetrates my soul?”
He wiped away more and looked over at Zoe.
“Hey, Boss, are you open to bottom-up evaluations?”
Zoe squeezed Bella’s hand and looked over at Anton.
“What are you talking about?”
Anton gestured at the thirteen dead Zees and the carpet of blood flowing into the river.
“This whole fighting as a team thing? I think there’s some room for improvement.”
As Zoe’s tired mind tried to think of something to say, the chest in the center of the room clicked. She winced and activated [Self Reflects the World]. With weary steps, she rose to shield her allies.
“Get back,” she said.
Her feet splashed in the blood, and the Mirror repelled the gore. Wide circles of stone appeared around her footsteps and vanished as the flow returned when her feet moved on. She reached the chest as it slowly opened. A tinkling sound filled the room like a cheap wind-up music box.
The music stopped and confetti burst out. Zoe flinched as shredded, multicolored paper flitted down to the bloody ground.
“What’s inside?” Anton called out.
Zoe peered into the chest’s golden glow.
"Treasure," she said.
"Can you be more specific?"
But Zoe didn't answer, she was too distracted by the rainbow aura pulsing from her skin.