The squad blinked away spots as everyone squinted to their greeter, who simply looked on patiently. Akamori rubbed at his eyes vigorously several times before finally trying to adjust to the ambient light levels. He turned back to the main doors, pointing with a thumb. “Some kind of airlock?”
“Indeed.” The greeter intoned. He had no obvious mouth. A pair of massive fangs quivered above a smaller mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. As Akamori’s eyes adjusted, he could make out the finer details of the creature. He stood at 2 meters tall easily. With black skin coated in fine hairs. Four legs braced the creature on the ground, and it clasped together a pair of smaller humanoid arms in front of what would pass for his abdomen, and the main arms held the staff. His head was as large as a watermelon. Bald in the sense that it lacked longer hair like humans possessed. Multiple sets of eyes facing multiple directions ringed the top of his head like an all seeing crown. As Akamori’s vision cleared and adjusted completely, he could even make out the faintly glowing smaller swirls of fire on the creature’s skin. Like birthmarks made of magma.
“So, uh, what’s your name?” Akamori ventured hesitantly.
“Our language is unusable by your tongue and I lack an individual identifier such as yourselves. However, if you must refer to me as anything, Librarian would be the best use of your own tongue to my designation.”
Morwen cleared her throat, casting an uncertain glance back at the doors it had teleported them to the other side of. “Right then. We’ve come for a reason. What exactly? We aren’t sure.”
“Of course. Right this way. You’ve been expected. Please, follow me, and please touch nothing.”
The Spider Bat pivoted on its legs and strode deeper into the palace, leaving the squad at the mouth of the interior doorway. As it gained distance on them, it ruffled its wings, scratching its back. They all exchanged reluctant looks before fully committing and stepping inside. The chamber they emerged into was large, almost unfathomably. Akamori almost wondered if the interior was a dimension of its own.
“Bigger on the inside.” he mused softly.
“Indeed. You are walking within the focal point of all knowledge. Anything that was ever learned, is known, or ever will be known, is cataloged here for curation.”
Instinctively, Akamori turned to see Morwen and Amara’s faces both light up like children on gift day in winter harvest. “That must be a lot of information to organize.” Akamori said, swatting at Amara’s hand as it strayed to touch the shelves. Adoring them was everything from books, scrolls, knowledge discs and scales, and even recording gems. Akamori even thought he saw the surreal pink of mind magic as memories.
“This place is immense!” Amara said, with no attempt at hiding her excitement.
The Spider Bat Librarian chittered a laughter. “Indeed. The Library of Knowledge has existed before time was recorded.”
“That sounds like a long time. Don’t you get bored? What does a librarian do for fun?” Sirsir asked.
“We have been known to engage in games from time to time. It helps to exercise what we learn.”
“Like what?” Akamori asked.
“Often we’ll play Darstrix Aryte.” The Librarian replied as it escorted the squad down an aisle way set between large shelves that climbed into what Akamori quickly thought of as the sky in here. He looked up and could see the multi-limbed librarians clinging to shelves, or flying across aisles to other shelves, with arms full of items. When his gaze fell back to the Librarian, he frowned at the response.
“Board games? More like Bore-ing.” Akamori sighed.
Amara elbowed his armored ribs. “Board games are good at stimulating the mind. Something you might try from time to time.” The rib shot took him by surprise, since she had to step deeper into the group to do it. At least she wasn’t cowering in the back of the group from the librarian.
“Ugh. Now you sound like Avreone.”
“Then perhaps this Avreone speaks with merit.” The Librarian added politely. After walking through the grand library, they escorted the squad into a large sitting room with several comfortable looking chairs. Enough for each of them to take with chairs to spare. Amara and Morwen each took one of their own, close together. Akamori ejected himself from his armor and then flopped down on his chosen seat, sighing contentedly as the cushion hugged him. Sirsir laid down Arjun on a chair, then took its neighbor for himself.
They gave the squad time to relax and recover, lounging around and even catching some sleep for some of them. Akamori was too stir crazy to relax. They were in the void. Everything he’d learned about this place ran counter to what he understood to be sane or good. He felt like his skin was crawling. After some rough attempts at meditating, he understood the feeling. It was pure distilled fear.
His right foot fidgeted, rapidly tapping at the tiled floor. He needed an outlet to burn off the anxious energy that was building up. The sound of the doors creaking open made him flinch as he jolted up right off the over cushiony chair. In the entrance, a librarian stood. This one wasn’t holding a spell staff the way the first one was.
“Akamori. Your presence has been requested.”
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He rose with a stretch and stepped into his armor, allowing it to solidify around him, and then marched forward. His sword pulsed an eager greeting. The armor and spell rifle both thrummed a welcome as well. Akamori was quickly coming to think of all the items as a set that made a whole. He felt complete with them.
“That is more true than you know.” The sword hissed.
The librarian’s oversized spider like head bobbed downward on his approach, mimicking something like a greeting or a wave. The talons were massive. He estimated they were about as big as his forearm if you stretched them out. The fangs quivered as it spoke, covering a smaller mouth set under them.
“Is Guest-Akamori ready?”
“Ready as I’ll get. Let’s do this.”
The librarian took him on a guided walk through the stacks towards a looming set of doors covered in sigils and runes. There was no way to judge how old they were. The elegance of the carvings was top tier, even to his unexperienced eye. His weapons and armor all trembled at the door. Like attack dogs weary of a larger predator. Not scared, but definitely concerned.
The librarian broke off to the right as the doors rumbled open. Darkness spilled out of the crack along with a musty smoke that crept along the floor, snaking around his calves and covering his feet. He cast an uncertain glance at the librarian, who gestured in with both of his right arms. Akamori sighed and nodded. He willed his armor to deploy his helmet. The plates slid up from the collar and wrapped around his head, hardening into place.
He waited for the hud to wink on and examined the paper doll and stats. His HP and AP bars were full, and his armor was showing all white, and no status ailments. He was as ready as he could get to meet a whatever he was here to meet. He turned back to ask the librarian that escorted him in just who he was going to see, but the doors clapped shut in his face loudly. He sighed loudly, head dropping.
“Of course.”
Ahead of him lay a spiraling stone staircase. The lighting was very poor. There weren’t even torches to light the way. They were really nailing the whole mysterious and gloomy vibe. With a resigned shrug, he started his way down the stairs.
Akamori strode deeper into the chamber with a far more casual demeanor than he probably should have. But being cautious and a wound up bottle of nerves didn’t sit well with him. If he was descending to his death, there was probably very little he could do to alter the outcome, current circumstances considered.
“Of that, you are correct.” A disembodied voice rumbled through his mind like gravel grinding his ear drums. The force of it was so powerful the pressure pushed him to a knee. He was suddenly thankful he’d left his helmet up, as he felt something warm and wet trickling free of his ear, like he’d just taken a hot shower and washed his hair. He glanced up, triggering his perception skill.
???
Divinity: ???
Challenge: ???
He sighed, annoyed that the skill wasn’t much help.
“Yes. It’s been so long since I’ve conversed with such a weak mortal. I’d forgotten being near our very aura can be crippling.” The voice crooned.
“Ouch. Not big on humility are ya?” He asked through grit teeth.
“My apologies. I’ve spent a long time away from the cycle and away from sentient beings. The niceties of conversation may be slightly beyond my grasp.”
“In other words, you won’t be responsible for any bruised egos.”
The voice chittered a laugh that sounded like an older feminine version of the librarians. “Quite so I’m afraid.”
He found if he clenched his teeth and focused, the overwhelming pressure was easier to bare. Akamori took a deep breath, then pushed up off the steps and forced himself to finish the descent. He didn’t dare risk flying out of fear the oppressive voice and presence would simply swat him out of the air. Taking a slide down these stairs even in his armor didn’t strike him as a situation with a positive outcome.
High above and some distance away from him, several small orbs of fire winked alive. A heavy presence settled over him, like a thick wool blanket being thrown over his head. He felt so much smaller than he really did. Like bug sized smaller. A massive silhouette of a large spider with draconic wings appeared in the darkness. It lumbered forward, emerging from the darkness as though it were a waterfall of black ink.
Akamori swallowed hard and stood his ground. It stood an easy 20 meters tall. The main body reminded him of a ground spider. A thick arachnid body and legs covered in hairs. It reminded him of the Hoshun Tarantulas. Massive thick fangs and a ring of fiery eyes. On its back were a pair of massive leathery draconic wings folded up and draped over the legs at its sides. A large twin tail writhed lazily behind it that ended in arachnid spinerets. It wasn’t near as large as Big Blue was, but he got the sense that was just so she didn’t bring the massive palace down around them.
“So, what comes next?”
“You have questions. I have answers. Ask, that so you may be left here better than you came. However, I must impose a solitary stipulation. I will only answer those questions that I may deem worthy of answer. Some information you are not yet ready for at this stage of your journey.”
“So I can ask you anything I want and you’ll answer as long as it isn’t something that might paradoxically destroy the universe or something. Is that it?”
The massive spider bat thing chuckled. Its voice rumbling in deep resonance. A large hair shook free of its legs, clattering to the stone floor like falling sticks. Dust and small rocks shook free of the chamber they were in. Every so often, something would ping off a plate of his spell armor. It was like standing next to a struck bell. He could feel the sound. The massive creature bobbed its head in an exaggerated nod as its huge fangs quivered with speech.
“Something like that, yes.” The beast’s head canted to the side curiously as it observed him.
“Alright, then, let’s get started.” He said after a deep inhale. He was partially stalling. This whole situation was so far out of his norm, he was struggling to put it all together in his head. Context. He needed context. He could wrap his head around all this if it made sense. He took another deep breath and nodded resolute. That gave him mission parameters to work within. A framework to build his questions around.
Who was he speaking with? Why did other beings refer to him as though they knew or recognized him? What was he? What would they need to win? And how?